


A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



D. MARPLES, PRINTER. LIVERPOOL. 



A 



GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



NEGRO CHIEF. 




LIVERPOOL : 

EDWARD HOWELL, CHUECH STREET. 

LONDON : 

ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO , PATERNOSTER ROW. 

1850. 



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In the following pages, some observations made 
during a recent visit to the magnificent but unfor- 
tunate "Queen of the Antilles," are interwoven with 
the more prominent passages of her tragic history. 
A complete political narrative is not attempted; but 
had not several facts been placed in new aspects, by 
the aid of documents which have lately seen the 
light, these sketches, notwithstanding the object to 
which their results are destined, would scarcely now 
have been presented to the eye, as they already have 

been to the ear. 

C. M. B. 

Wayertbee, August, 1850. 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAP. I. 

Page 

Voyage across the Atlantic. First view of the island. Its 

aspect to the discoverer. The condition and religion of 

the first inhabitants. The shipwreck of Columbus. The 

kindness of the islanders. The fortress of Xavidad. 

Its destruction. 1 

CHAP. II. 

The first city in the Xew World constructed. Expedition of 
the discoverers into the interior. Mountain scenery in 
the tropics. Discovery of the Royal Plain. Gold found 
in the mountains of Cibao. The Caciques offer organ- 
ised resistance. Their total defeat. Tyranny and ser- 
vitude crush the spirit of the natives . . . .19 

CHAP. III. 
Louis XIY. constitutes the island a French colony. The 
inflammable materials of societv. The revolution in 



Page 
France, and its action on her colonies. Coloured deputies 
despatched to Paris. The mulatto insurrection : its rise 
and suppression. The National and Colonial Assemblies 
at cross purposes. Terrific consequences. England 
despatches a fleet to take the island. France proclaims 
emancipation to the slaves 46 

CHAP. IV. 
Toussaint L' Ouverture : his origin, education, and military 
skill. Constituted Commander-in-chief. Hailed by his 
country. Honourable conduct to General Maitland. The 
British troops vacate the island, which rapidly rises to 
prosperity. . 66 

CHAP. V. 
Napoleon Buonaparte, First Consul. Resolves to reduce 
Toussaint. The largest fleet ever sent to the New- 
World appears off the shores of St. Domingo. The 
war. Touching assault on Toussaint, through the me- 
dium of his sons. He capitulates honourably. Treach- 
erously sent to France. His imprisonment in the Jura 
mountains. Death. Requital 80 

CHAP. VI. 
The island pronounced independent under its original 
name. Its Republican rulers and present Emperor. 



Incidents of a recent journey. Splendour of the 
scenery. Cultivation. Sugar. Coffee. Mahogany. 
The amount of exports, and possibility of its great 
increase 94 

CHAP. VII. 
Port-au-Prince. Its fine natural situation : the contrast 
of its interior. Style of sepulture. The character of 
the Haytiens. Vices, prejudices, and manners. Signs 
of improvement. Education. Literary institutions. 
Devotion of English ladies and missionaries to the wel- 
fare of the people. Facilities for Evangelical labour. 
The hope of the Republic centred in Christianity. The 
capabilities of the African race. 110 



A GLIMPSE OF HAYTL 



CHAPTEE I. 

^CIVILIZATION has so mitigated the rigours 
which our ancestors encountered in their 
ocean voyages, that the bravery demanded 
for such enterprises on the part of a landsman has 
been reduced to a very small amount. The applica- 
tion of steam has given a precision and a speed 
which they never anticipated, and the national love 
of comfort, by perpetual ingenuity has made material 
encroachments on the tyranny of the waves. 

The passengers who crowded the decks of our 
magnificent ship, before she weighed anchor, num- 
bered nearly one hundred and thirty, and used 
1 



2 A &LIMPSE OF HAITI. 

languages which indicated the chequered history of 
the lands to which we were destined. There were 
Jew and Gentile, European and Ethiopian; the 
Frenchman in one direction, the Spaniard in another, 
the German in a third, and the Englishman every- 
where. For the first week we had weather which 
tempted few from their cells. The English Channel 
flung us angrily into the Bay of Biscay, and that 
region justified its historical character. It were 
bootless to record its horrors, or to describe the 
annihilation to which every one seemed to be con- 
signed. That morning remains in our imagination 
more vividly than any other, when the carpenter 
appeared at the door of our stern apartment with 
the words, " Take off the dead lights, gentlemen ; 
wind fair for the south/' " Handsomest man in the 
ship," responded the only person in our 1 party who 
had strength to do so. "Handsome is as handsome 
does," said the man, though in indifferent English, 
yet with time modesty, and proceeded to his work. 
It was indeed handsome. The breath of the morning 



MADEIEA. 6 

was delightful, and the admission of light, after such 
an interval of darkness, more than cheering. 

On the eighth day we anchored at Madeira, the 
lofty pinnacles of which were so clearly defined 
against the sky, and the waters of the bay of so 
bright a blue, and all above and beneath so perfectly 
placid, that it was the easiest thing imaginable to 
suppose oneself gazing upon one of Burford's Pano- 
ramas. As we say of these, " How like nature !" 
the exclamation prompted by this was, "How like 
art!" At as early a moment as possible, in the 
bottom of a small boat, and from the summit of a 
wave, a few of us were projected upon the gravelly 
beach of Funchall, and spent, on its precipitous 
streets and loftily terraced walks, a day of most vivid 
enjoyment. On returning to the neighbourhood of 
the ship, when the sun's rays became level, we found 
it one of the noisiest market-places of which it is 
possible to conceive. One tawny boatman shouted 
forth the merits of his oranges and bananas ; another, 
the beauty of his baskets and straw hats ; and another, 



4 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

the charms of his canaries and goldfinches, which he 
held up on elegant sprays, or light cages of bamboo, 
to the manifest terror of the captives. One of these 
little creatures, while we were looking on, made his 
escape, and flew to land with such hearty vehemence, 
that we could not help shouting in participation of 
his triumph. As the seamen were raising the 
anchor, the engine at intervals gave two or three 
strokes, which served to scatter the mercantile com- 
batants far and wide; but, like flies driven from 
some sweet prey, they renewed their conflict as soon 
as the envious wheels came to another pause. Nor 
were they by any means unsuccessful, for when all 
was calm, we observed one half of the gentlemen 
in possession of straw hats of ample circumference, 
and most of the ladies with baskets of various shapes 
and hues ; while cages, beautifully tenanted, hung in 
every direction about the ship. 

Before night we were again under weigh for a 
fortnight's run, directly across the Atlantic. The 
solitude of that stupendous waste soon became the 



TEOPIC OF CANCER. 

all-predominating idea. We beheld not a single sail, 
nor a single bird, nor a solitary monster, nor any 
living thing whatever, save the few transient flying 
fishes, which escaped as speedily as they could. The 
" betize," as a Frenchman justly styled it, of Neptune 
coming on board to initiate the first cross ers of the 
tropic of Cancer, hardly disturbed the monotony. 
We urged our utmost powers of progression, with 
apparently no success ; nothing broke the level line 
of our horizon, nor ever changed its perfectly circular 
form. Day after day we continued to occupy its cen- 
tral point, as if enchanted by the rod of a magician. 
It seemed as if we were something of priceless worth, 
placed on the surface of that vast azure plain, and 
covered every night with a brilliantly constellated 
convex canopy to ensure our perfect safety. Never 
had Herbert's words a more emphatical application ; — 

" Man is one world, and hath another to attend him." 

At last, within the time which our navigators had 
predicted, we could descry the hazy outline of the 



A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

island of Barbadoes, three thousand eight hundred 
and twenty miles from the river of Southampton. 
After spending some hours on shore, we next coasted 
the far lovelier Grenada, where we stepped on board 
another steamer, to stand across the waters of the 
Caribbean. This proved by no means a pleasant 
episode of the voyage, for the vessel being deeply 
laden with quicksilver, and the sea running pretty 
high, there was little air in the cabin, and few dry 
spots on the deck, so that the usual depression of 
spirits and sense of misery were not dissipated until 
we rolled into the bay of Jacmel, and made our 
warning gun reverberate along the shores of Hayti. 
Never was a Sabbath morning more serene and 
beautiful ! The constellation of the cross, which we 
then for the first time saw, just rising from the level 
to the perpendicular position, near the southern pole ; 
the varying hues which the sun dispersed over the 
eastern sky, in preparation for his rising, together 
with the fragrant land breeze which flung her in- 
cense over all, contributed with sacred associations to 



COLUMBUS. 7 

attune our minds to gratitude and gladness. We 
could then conceive how discoverers, on nearing land 
in these circumstances, are wont to shower names, 
bearing the complexion of their own emotions, upon 
every bay and every headland. 

This island was approached by its discoverer from 
the opposite point of the compass, more than three 
centuries and a half before the morning of which we 
speak. It was in the course of his first voyage, and 
immediately after the discovery of Cuba, that he 
caught sight of its lofty interior mountains. His 
announcement of the fact is sufficiently simple, and 
indicates no presentiment of the importance which 
it was to assume in his own history. " From this 
point," says he, "I saw, lying eastwards, another 
island, fifty-four miles distant. I went thither, and 
steered my course eastward, to the distance of five 
hundred and sixty-four miles along the north coast. "* 

To sweep past a coast of that character, in an 

* Select Letters of Columbus (privately printed for the 
Hakluyt Society), page 4. 



O A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

atmosphere which imparts to distant objects a dis- 
tinctness and beauty unknown in other latitudes, is 
in the highest degree delightful. Chains of lofty 
mountains, deeply green in the foreground, and 
vividly blue as they stretch into the far interior, 
elevate the thoughts; while shaded ravines, sparkling 
with rivers that seek junction with the waters of the 
ocean, perpetually open to the eye, and refresh with 
the idea of coolness and repose, so welcome under 
burning skies. The impressions produced on this 
occasion upon the minds of the Spanish seamen were 
such, that they at last admitted some approximation 
in the scenery of the New World to their native 
plains of Andalusia; and the Admiral, probably glad 
of the tardy concession, pronounced the name of the 
countiy " Hispaniola," or Little Spain. 

Whence the people whom they were about to find 
on these shores had come, it is in vain to conjecture. 
They were not so entirely pacific and defenceless as 
Columbus at first imagined them to be. The descent 
of the Caribs upon their coasts had accustomed them 



BELIEF OF THE NATIVES. 9 

in some degree to the use of arms, and internal dis- 
sensions had added something to their education in 
that art. But generally speaking they were a mild 
and inoffensive race. There was nothing ferocious 
in their habits, and nothing bloody in their religion. 
They retained the belief, so seldom obliterated from 
the human mind, of one supreme Being, to whom 
they attributed immortality and omnipotence. They 
did not address their worship directly to him, but 
employed the mediation of inferior deities. These 
they represented by rude images, of which each chief, 
family, and individual possessed one. They believed 
that these visible forms (which soon passed into 
realities,) retained their powers wherever they went, 
and therefore hid them most scrupulously from the 
Spaniards. They often stole them from one another, 
and attempted to regain them with as much zeal as 
Laban did his, when it was abstracted by his daughter 
Bachel. 

Like the more polished Greeks, they attributed 
to these secondary powers the presidency of various 



10 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

departments of nature. They governed the seas 
and forests, the springs and fountains ; they gave 
success in hunting and fishing ; they filled the rivers, 
and spread fertility or desolation on the plains. The 
sun and moon they conceived to have issued from a 
certain great cavern, and in times of drought it was 
customary for them to proceed on pilgrimage to that 
gloomy temple, to propitiate the favour of the lumi- 
naries. They imagined that another such cavern was 
the first dwelling of the human race. There they 
fancied them to have tarried for a long time in pro- 
foundest darkness, issuing only in the depth of mid- 
night for their food ; for so unfavourable did they 
believe the sun's rays to have been to them, that one 
who lingered at a river's brink until the morning 
broke, they said, was changed to a bird, whose note 
was ever afterwards heard by night bewailing its 
unhappy fate. 

That their caves should awaken ideas of sublimity 
and of terror is not surprising. We did not reach 
the precise places traditionally pointed out as the 



EXTRAORDINARY CAYES. 11 

scenes of these august events, but in an adjoining 
island, of the same geological formation, we entered 
several of those natural temples. After traversing 
one of them for more than two hours, we were told 
that we had not seen above one-third of the whole. 
One apartment after another had disclosed itself to 
our view, supported by piers and interlacing arches, 
and groined by carving so soft and delicate, that few 
cathedrals could have borne from them the palm of 
beauty ; and when our guide, who carried an immense 
faggot of torchwood, went to some distance from our 
position, and gave us a conception of the long drawn 
aisles and the dark recesses, which suggested depths 
that we could not penetrate, we did not wonder that 
such places had mingled themselves with the imagi- 
native theology of untutored tribes. The speculative 
notions of the Haytiens, however, whether relating 
to the present or to the future world, had probably 
little practical effect on either their personal or social 
state. The festivals and dances, which formed part 
of their religion, would doubtless have existed without 



12 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

it, and their mild and inoffensive dispositions sprang 
more from their easy mode of life, and their natural 
indolence, than from abstract principles. Although 
they were by no means so free from treachery, male- 
volence, revenge, and other forms of selfishness, as 
the ardent and large mind of Columbus imagined 
them to be, he had great reason to praise them for 
that prodigal hospitality which the stranger most 
needs, and which is the first and often solitary virtue 
of the savage. 

Having anchored in what is now T called the Bay 
of Acul, the discoverer was visited by a distinguished 
Cacique named Guacanagari, who received them in 
so friendly a manner that the little squadron again 
weighed anchor to visit him in his own domains, 
which lay a little to the eastward. On the night 
previous to the morning on which they intended to 
land, an incident occurred, which, although in itself 
disastrous, proved one of those small points of human 
history upon which immense consequences revolve. 
By some neglect on the part of the ship's officers, 



COLUMBUS. 13 

during one of the very short seasons of repose that 
Columbus was accustomed to allow himself, the vessel 
ran ashore upon a hank, and, notwithstanding the 
utmost exertions, was most reluctantly abandoned. 
When day dawned, messengers were sent on shore 
to inform the Cacique of the misfortune. When he 
heard the tidings he was moved to tears, and placed 
all he had at the command of the mariners. Not 
one of the natives shewed a disposition to appro- 
priate the treasures thus flung upon their shores, 
but, on the contrary, rendered every possible assist- 
ance in protecting them. A much less generous 
spirit than that of Columbus would have been moved 
by such rare honour and pity. " These people " 
(said he, in his despatches to Spain,) "love their 
neighbours as themselves; their discourse is ever 
sweet and gentle, and accompanied by a smile. I 
swear to your Majesties, there is not a better 
nation or a better land." 

So strongly, indeed, did the ease of this savage 
life contrast with the toil of traversing unknown 



14 A GLIMPSE OF HAYT1. 

seas, that the Spanish seamen entreated permission 
to remain on the island. Columbus, considering the 
difficulty of transporting so many in his only remain- 
ing caravel, and catching a prophetic glimpse of the 
future colony, determined to accede to their wishes. 
The materials of the wreck were brought into requi- 
sition, and such were the zeal of the sailors, and 
the prompt assistance of the Haytiens, that in ten 
days a fortress was completed. It was mounted with 
cannon, and supplied with ammunition, and reckoned 
sufficient to overawe the whole of the unwarlike 
population. It received the name of " Navidad," or 
the Nativity, to commemorate the preservation from 
shipwreck on Christmas-day. 

While the fortress was in course of building, the 
Admiral continued to receive every day proofs of the 
kindness of Guacanagari. Whenever he went on 
shore to superintend the works, he was entertained 
by him in the most hospitable manner. He had the 
largest house in the place prepared for his reception, 
carpeted with palm-leaves, and furnished with stools 



SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 15 

of polished ebony. When the chief received his 
guest, it was always with a princely generosity, hang- 
ing round his neck some jewel of gold, or presenting 
him with something of equal value ; so completely 
had Columbus won by the benignity of his manners, 
as well as overawed by his imagined superhuman 
greatness, this simple and generous people. After 
a terrific display of the power of their cannon in 
rending trees and shattering the hardest rocks, the 
Spaniards, leaving a small garrison, set sail for the 
Old World. The inhabitants clung around them 
with regret, and the Cacique took leave of the Admi- 
ral with many tears— tears which, had he foreseen 
the dreadful future, would have sprung from a bitterer 
fountain. 

Nearly an entire year had revolved, — during 
which Columbus was hailed in the cities of Spain 
with honours more than proportioned to his former 
ignominy, — when his small ships again appeared off 
the fortress of "Navidad." It was night. Two signal- 
guns were ordered to be fired. The report, in the 



10 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

still atmosphere which prevails at that hour, echoed 
along the shore; but there was no gun, no friendly 
shout in reply. The spirits of the people became 
depressed. When four or five hours had passed 
away, a canoe, which they had outsailed on the pre- 
vious day, re-approached with a few Indians, who 
gave a confused and unsatisfactory account. They 
were kindly treated, and departed, promising to bring 
Guacanagari at dawn. But the sun rose without a 
visit of the chief. All was silence and desertion; 
not a canoe appeared in the harbour ; not an Indian 
hailed them from the land, nor was any smoke seen 
rising from the groves. Eemaining cautiously on 
board all day, a boat was sent on shore in the even- 
ing. The crew hastened to the fortress. They found 
it burnt and demolished, and the ground strewed with 
broken chests and fragments of European garments. 
Meeting no one, not even a creature, with whom to 
exchange a word, on a spot from which they had 
parted with so much affection, they returned dejected 
to the ships. On the second morning Columbus 



DESTRUCTION OF NAYIDAD. 17 

himself landed, and repairing to the ruins, caused 
diligent search to be made, and not far from the 
fortress the bodies of eleven Europeans were dis- 
covered, not buried, but covered with the grass, which 
had already grown up around them.* 

It appeared that Columbus had scarcely set sail 
for Spain when all his counsels faded from the minds 
of those whom he had left behind. Instead of culti- 
vating the goodwill of the natives, they endeavoured 
by all manner of wrongful means to get possession 
of their golden ornaments, and to invade the sanc- 
tity of their families. Fierce brawls between them- 
selves followed, and a party seceding from the rest, 
set off for the mountains of Cibao, where a Carib 
named Caonabo, who had come an adventurer to the 
island, reigned supreme over a large body of the 
inhabitants. Accounts of the white men had reached 
him among his mountains, and he had the sagacity 
to perceive that his own power must fall before them. 
Xo sooner, therefore, did the malcontents appear in 

* Select Letters of Columbus, page 45. 



18 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

his territories, than he seized and put them to death. 
He then assembled his subjects, and traversing the 
forests with profound secrecy, arrived in the vicinity 
of La Navidad without being discovered, and at dead 
of night burst upon the village and the fortress. 
The remaining Spaniards were taken by surprise. 
Eight were thrown into the sea, and the rest were 
massacred. Guacanagari and his subjects, — although 
extreme suspicion of the fact prevailed at the time, 
it cannot be doubted, — fought faithfully in defence of 
their guests, but were easily routed. The Cacique 
was wounded in the conflict, and his village reduced 
to ashes. 

"Such," says Mr. Irving, "is the story of the 
first European establishment in the new world. It 
presents in a diminutive compass an epitome of 
the gross vices which degrade civilisation and the 
grand political errors which sometimes subvert the 
mightiest empires." 



CITY OF ISABELLA. 19 



CHAPTER II. 



§|j^©EMOVING some leagues to the eastward, on 
(HhS^ ^ e snore °^ a nne ^ay, Columbus founded 
a city, — the first built by Europeans in the 
New World, — to which he gave the name of his 
patroness, Isabella. The walls, markets, churches, 
and courts of justice, of slender enough materials we 
suspect, rose rapidly ; but the low and moist climate, 
against which the lofty cavaliers disdained to take 
proper precautions, spread disease among them. 

There is an invincible attachment, in the people 
of almost all old nations, to their original habits. 
To this day the Spaniards stoop haughtily to the 
exactions of a tropical climate. You witness the 
ladies in the modern cities of the Antilles, having 
their heads covered at noon with only the em- 
broidered veils of their native country ; and — in the 
evening, when the cool atmosphere condenses the 



20 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

vapours arising from the earth's surface, and chills 
the whole frame — coursing over the extensive boule- 
vards in open volantes, dressed in the light attire 
of the ball-room. The children of Castile and Arra- 
gon are not to be chased by ignoble fevers from 
their ancient manners. 

The maladies of the mind, however, mingled 
with those of the body in their progenitors of the 
city of Isabella. The majority had embarked in 
the enterprise with the most visionary expectations. 
Many expected a life of perpetual joy, and riches 
more than they could transport. What was their 
disappointment, when they found themselves doomed 
to labour to which they had never been habituated, 
and compelled to seek the barest comfort by intole- 
rable exertion ! As the only means of dispersing 
the storm of discontent which he saw gathering, 
Columbus proposed an expedition into the interior 
of the country. Leaving his brother in command 
at Isabella, and taking with him every person in 
health that could be found, he set out at the head 



MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 21 

of four hundred men. They were well equipped 
and armed, for their purpose was to ascend to the 
mountains of Cibao, the territories of the dreaded 
Caonabo. Their march for the first day was across 
the plain that lies between the sea and the moun- 
tains. They forded two rivers, and reached in the 
evening the foot of the rocky pass. 

Nothing is more striking than the contrast 
between the low and the mountainous scenery of 
these islands. In the former, vegetation is mean 
and dwarfish, and the air moist and oppressive. 
You imagine death lurking under every bush, or 
floating insidiously across the steaming marshes. 
But as you ascend, the moods both of nature and 
of your own spirit change together. A quiet force 
begins to inspire every thing you see. The outline 
of the mountain paints itself distinctly on the blue 
sky. The trees become majestic, and the foliage 
of deeper tone. The bombax rears his perpen- 
dicular column for fifty feet, and then extends his 
rugged oak- like branches from the proud capital. 



22 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

The palm, on the breeziest pinnacles, stretches her 
noble canopy with an air that strikes you as at 
once kind and disdainful. The bamboo touches 
your very soul with the softness of her green, and 
the grace with which her branches, springing indi- 
vidually from the soil, describe a plume-like curve 
until they almost again touch it. Lovely as these 
objects are, you begin to wonder why they should 
occasion in you so much exhilaration. You busy 
your mind, as the silence and solitude become 
deeper, with endeavouring to perceive what train 
of forgotten emotions, or what memory of former 
pleasures, could have revived within you, to waft 
you on a sea of such placid enjoyment. But there 
is nothing around you like anything you ever saw 
in your infancy — nothing to remind you of home, 
or clime, or kindred, (except indeed by contrast,) 
that should succeed in rekindling pleasant associa- 
tions. The mystery dissolves as you remember to 
have read that, in those elevated regions, the atmo- 
sphere becomes so pure and rare, that from physical 



THE EOYAL PLAIN. 23 

causes alone the soul is overfilled with indefinable 
gladness. The gross materialism in which that fine 
essence is imprisoned seems for the time etherialised, 
and, forgetting its earthly properties, partakes both 
of the nature and the enjoyment of its captive. 

It must have been, we dare from such expe- 
rience to testify, a day of unwonted pleasure for 
those adventurous Spaniards when they reached 
that eminence. There was nothing then, as there 
is nothing now, in most of the mountain passes of 
the island, but an aboriginal footpath winding over 
rocks and precipices ; and through solemn groves 
choked with excessive vegetation. But the youthful 
cavaliers, accustomed to this kind of service in the 
Moorish wars, having cut an adequate pathway, the 
army toiled upwards until they arrived at the point 
where the gorge opens upon the interior. There 
the land of promise burst upon their view. Below 
lay a vast and delicious plain, painted with all 
the hues of the richest vegetation. Numerous 
streams, forced on their way by no declivity, wan- 



24 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

dered variously over the whole expanse, imparting 
a verdure and fertility unusual even in that generous 
clime. The landscape stretched farther than the 
eye could reach, and the Admiral, struck with its 
imperial beauty, called it "La Vega Real," the 
Royal Plain. 

When the Indians, whose huts studded this 
unvisited country, beheld a train of warriors, with 
bounding steeds and glittering armour, and clang of 
warlike music, descend from the mountain, they 
mistook the pageant for a supernatural vision. On 
the approach of the army, they generally fled in 
terror, and took refuge in their houses. Such was 
their simplicity, that they put up a barrier of reeds 
at the portal as a fortification. Columbus had too 
much sagacity to shake their confidence in that 
mode of defence. He preferred to win their con- 
fidence by trifling presents; and it was not difficult 
to obtain. They became at once so friendly, that 
the only obstacle they presented was a profusion of 
hospitality. Whatever the travellers wanted they 



SAVAGE LIFE. 25 

might freely take ; and it -was difficult to convince 
them that they might not, with equal freedom, help 
themselves to the white man's viands. The savage 
of such lands has no idea of an exclusive proprietor- 
ship in food, which his Creator bestows with as much 
profusion as upon other countries he pours down 
the light and the air and the water. No labour 
was required of them. Their streams abounded 
with fish, which could be secured without ever dis- 
turbing their dreaming indolence, and fruits, spon- 
taneously encircling the whole year, supplied them 
with a perpetual banquet. One does not wonder 
that the early chroniclers should rise to an elevation 
bordering on the realms of fancy when they describe 
these scenes. " There is no province, nor any 
region," (says Peter Martyr,) "which is not remark- 
able for the majesty of its mountains, the fruitful- 
ness of its vales, the pleasantness of its hills, and 
delightful plains with abundance of fair rivers flowing 
through them. There never was" (he continues with 
the same enthusiasm,) " any noisome animal found 



26 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

in it, nor any ravening four-footed beast, no lion, 
nor bear, nor fierce tigers, nor crafty foxes, nor 
devouring wolves; but all things blessed and for- 
tunate." 

Having pursued their march for two or three 
days across this plain, they crossed a range of 
mountains, and found themselves in a territory 
rugged, stony, and sterile, but giving indications 
of the gold upon which their hopes were centred. 
The streams sparkled with the coveted sand, and 
the natives brought pieces of ore, which left no 
doubt of its wide diffusion. The Admiral at once 
resolved to take possession and to build a fortress. 
He called the latter St. Thomas, that he might 
carry a pleasant reproof to some of his companions 
who, like the apostle of that name, would not 
believe the reality of the treasure, until they had 
seen it with their eyes and touched it with their 
hands. Having made this settlement, the principal 
part of the army pursued the same course back to 
Isabella. 



EUROPEAN INFLUENCE. 27 

It can never cease to be an occasion of deep 
regret, or rather of positive personal humiliation, 
that the entrance of civilised men into those coun- 
tries should have brought with it, to so frightful an 
extent, devastation, and vice, and bloodshed. Fre- 
quently while travelling solitarily over their inspiring 
landscapes, while the morning diffused itself over the 
mountain summits, and at length poured its direct 
rays through the overarching trees, disposing the 
mind to meditation and joy, have we thought of 
the centuries of peace which the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants enjoyed, until men of our own race, bearing 
the most sacred, but most deeply dishonoured 
name that it has ever been permitted man to take 
upon his lips, approached them — and then, instead 
of imparting to their understandings knowledge, to 
their hearts charity, and to their souls life, ground 
them to the dust by base oppression, incited them 
to fiendish war, and finally swept off the last remnant 
of them from the earth ; and, as we have thought, 
we have been scorched with shame, and almost con- 



20 A GLIMFSE 0E HAITI, 

sciously disentitled to any enjoyment of the scene 
around, 

The commander left in charge of St. Thomas 
forgot all the maxims of the Admiral as soon as 
he departed. He loitered among the hospitable 
villages of the plain, until the excesses of his 
soldiers aroused the natives to retaliation. From 
confiding hosts they were converted into vindictive 
enemies. Indignant at having their kindness re- 
quited with robbery, they refused any longer to 
furnish food. The Spaniards used force to obtain 
it. committing at the same time the most wanton 
violence. Though timid and anwarlike, and unable 
to attack the soldiers in open combat, the feeblest 
bands took sanguinary vengeance by stratagem ef- 
fected through local knowledge. 

But the most formidable enemy of the invaders 
was Caonabo. the Carib chief. He was a savage 
of great natural talents for war. — proud, daring. 
and valiant. He had been enraged at seeing the 
fortress planted in the very heart of his own terri- 



CAPTURE OF CAONABO. '29 

tories. and resolved on vengeance. He combined 
in a league the principal caciques of the island. 
which was divided into five domains., each having 
its absolute hereditary prince. By a desperate ad- 
venture on the part of one of the Spanish warriors. 
named Ojeda, this savage general was taken. 

i; Choosing ten bold and hardy followers." (says 
Mr. Irving in his flowing narrative of this curious 
adventure,) " well armed and well mounted, and in- 
voking the protection of his patroness the Virgin, 
whose image he as usual bore with him as a safe- 
guard, Ojeda plunged into the forest, and made his 
way above sixty leagues, at the head of his followers, 
into the wild territories of Caonabo, where he found 
the cacique in one of his most populous towns. 
Ojeda approached Caonabo with great deference and 
respect, treating him as a sovereign prince : he in- 
formed him that he had come on a friendly embassy 
from the Admiral, who was chief of the Spaniards, 
and who had sent him a valuable present. 

" Caonabo had tried Ojeda in battle, and had 



30 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

witnessed his fiery prowess, and had conceived a 
warrior's admiration of him. He received him with 
a degree of chivalrous courtesy — if such a phrase 
may apply to the savage state — and rude hospi- 
tality of a wild warrior of the forest. The free, 
fearless deportment, the great personal strength, 
and the surprising agility and adroitness of Ojecla 
in all manly exercises, and in the use of all kinds 
of weapons, were calculated to delight a savage, 
and he soon became a great favourite with Caonabo. 
Ojeda now used all his influence to prevail upon 
the cacique to repair to Isabella for the purpose 
of making a treaty with Columbus, and becoming 
the friend and ally of the Spaniards. It is said 
that he offered him, as a lure, the bell of the 
chapel of Isabella. 

" This bell was the wonder of the island. When 
the Indians heard its melody sounding through the 
forests as it rung for mass, and beheld the Spaniards 
hastening towards the chapel, they imagined that it- 
talked, and that the white men obeyed it. With 



CAPTURE OF GAONABO. 31 

that feeling of superstition with which they regarded 
all things connected with the Spaniards, they looked 
upon this bell as something supernatural, and in 
their usual phrase said it had come from ' Turey/ 
or the skies. Caonabo had heard this wonderful 
instrument at a distance, in the course of his prowl- 
ings about the settlement, and had longed to see 
it ; but when it was proffered to him as a present 
of peace, he found it impossible to resist the temp- 
tation. 

"The cacique agreed therefore to set out for 
Isabella ; but when the time came to depart, Ojeda 
beheld with surprise a powerful force of warriors 
assembled and ready to march. He asked the 
meaning of taking such an army on a mere friendly 
visit: to which the cacique proud]y replied, that it 
was not befitting a great prince like him to go forth 
scantily attended. Ojeda was little satisfied with 
this reply : he knew the warlike character of Cao- 
nabo, and his deep subtilty, which is the soul of 
Indian warfare : he feared some sinister design, and 



32 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

that the chieftain might meditate some surprise of 
the fortress of Isabella, or some attempt upon the 
person of the Admiral. He knew also that it was 
the wish of Columbus either to make peace with 
the cacique, or to get possession of his person 
without the alternative of open warfare. He had 
recourse to a stratagem, therefore, which has an 
air of fable and romance, but which is recorded by 
all the contemporary historians with trivial varia- 
tions, and which Las Casas assures us was in cur- 
rent circulation in the island when he arrived there 
about six years after the event. It accords, too, 
with the adventures and extravagant character of 
the man, and with the wild stratagems and vaunting 
exploits incident to Indian warfare. 

" In the course of their march, having halted 
near the river Yagui, Ojeda one day produced a 
set of manacles of polished steel so highly bur- 
nished that they looked like silver. These, he 
assured Caonabo, were royal ornaments, which had 
come from heaven on the ' Turey ' of Biscay, — 



CAPTURE OF CAONABO. 33 

that they were worn by the monarchs of Castile 
on solemn dances and other high festivals, and 
were intended as presents to the cacique. He 
proposed that Caonabo should go to the river and 
bathe, after which he should be decorated with 
these ornaments, and mounted on the horse of 
Ojeda, and should return in the state of a Spanish 
monarch to astonish his subjects. The cacique, 
with that fondness for glittering ornaments com- 
mon to savages, was dazzled with the sight. His 
proud, military spirit also, was flattered with the 
idea of bestriding one of those tremendous animals 
so dreaded by his countrymen. 

" He accompanied Ojeda and his followers to 
the river with but few attendants, dreading nothing 
from nine or ten strangers when thus surrounded 
by his army. After the cacique had bathed in the 
river, he was assisted to mount behind Ojeda, and 
the shackles were then adjusted. This done, they 
pranced round among the savages, who were asto- 
nished to behold their cacique in glittering array, and 
3 



34 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTT. 

mounted on one of these animals. Ojeda made 
several circuits, to gain space, followed by his little 
band of horsemen, the Indians shrinking back with 
affright from the prancing steeds. At length he 
made a wide sweep into the forest, until the trees 
concealed him from the sight of the army. His 
followers then closed around him, and drawing their 
swords, threatened Caonabo with instant death if 
he made the least noise or resistance., though indeed 
his manacles and shackles effectually prevented the 
latter. They bound him with cords to Ojeda, to 
prevent his falling, or effecting an escape : then 
putting spurs to their horses, they dashed across 
the Yagui. and made off through the woods with 
their prize. 

" They had now fifty or sixty leagues of wilder- 
ness to traverse on their way homewards, with here 
and there large Indian towns. They had borne off 
their captive far beyond the pursuit of his subjects, 
but the utmost vigilance was requisite to prevent 
his escape during this long and tiresome journey. 



CAPTURE OF CAONABO. 35 

and to avoid exciting the hostilities of any confede- 
rate cacique. They had to shun the populous parts 
of the country therefore, or to pass through the 
Indian towns at full gallop. They suffered greatly 
from fatigue, hunger, and watchfulness, encountering 
many perils, fording and swimming the numerous 
rivers of the plains, toiling through the deep tangled 
forest, and clambering over the high and rocky moun- 
tains. They accomplished all in safety, and Ojeda 
entered Isabella in triumph from this most wild and 
characteristic enterprise, with his savage Indian war- 
rior bound behind him a captive. 

" Columbus could not refrain from expressing his 
great satisfaction when this dangerous foe was de- 
livered into his hands. The haughty Carib met 
him with a lofty and unsubdued air, disdaining to 
conciliate him by submission, or to deprecate his 
vengeance for the blood of white men which he 
had shed. He never bowed his spirit to captivity : 
on the contrary, though completely at the mercy of 
the Spaniards, he displayed that boasting defiance 



36 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

which is a part of Indian heroism, and which the 
savage maintains towards his tormentors even amidst 
the agonies of the faggot and the stake. He vaunted 
his achievement in surprising and burning the for- 
tress of Nativity and slaughtering its garrison, and 
declared that he had secretly reconnoitered Isabella 
with the intention of wreaking upon it the same 
desolation. 

" Columbus, though struck with the wild heroism 
of this chieftain, considered him a dangerous enemy, 
whom, for the peace of the island, it was necessary 
carefully to guard. He determined to send him to 
Spain. In the meantime he ordered that he should 
be treated with kindness and respect, and lodged him 
in a part of his own dwelling house, where, however, 
he kept him a close prisoner in chains — probably 
in the splendid shackles which had ensnared him. 
This precaution must have been necessary, from the 
insecurity of his quarters ; for Las Casas observes 
that, the Admiral's house not being spacious, nor 



CAPTIVITY OF CAONABO. 37 

having many chambers, the captive chieftain could 
be seen from the portal. 

" Caonabo always maintained a haughty deport- 
ment towards Columbus, while he never evinced the 
least animosity against Ojecla for the artifice to which 
he had fallen a victim. It rather increased his 
admiration of him as a consummate warrior, looking 
upon it as the exploit of a master-spirit to have 
pounced upon him and borne him off in this hawk- 
like manner, from the very midst of his fighting 
men. There is nothing that an Indian more admires 
in warfare than a deep, well-executed stratagem. 

" Columbus was accustomed to bear himself with 
an air of dignity aud authority, as admiral and vice- 
roy, and exacted great personal respect. When he 
entered the apartment, therefore, where Caonabo was 
confined, all present rose, according to custom, and 
paid him reverence. The cacique alone neither 
moved nor took any notice of him. On the con- 
trary, when Ojeda entered, though small in person, 



•38 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

and without external state, Caonabo immediately 
rose, and saluted him with profound respect. On 
being asked the reason of this, Columbus being 
Guanciquina, or great chief over all, and Ojeda 
but one of his subjects, the proud Carib replied 
that the Admiral had never dared to come per- 
sonally to his house and seize him : it was only 
through the valour of Ojeda he was his prisoner, — 
to Ojeda therefore he owed reverence, not to the 
Admiral." 

The capture and captivity of this foe, however, 
who, it may be added, died on his way to Spain, 
did not quiet the spirits of the people, with whom 
he was excessively popular. He had a brother, of 
considerable skill in war, who shortly assembled all 
the allied caciques on the great plain, and approached 
Isabella, with the view of making a grand assault. 
Columbus' old friend Guacanagari informed him early 
of this fact, and he resolved at once to march to 
the enemies' territories and give them battle there. 

The colony was sickly, and the whole force 



BATTLE. 39 

capable of taking the field did not exceed 200 
infantry and '20 horse. With this army, insignifi- 
cant in number, but not trifling in the power arising 
from superior discipline, the Admiral hastened to the 
vicinity of his foes. They were confident in their 
numbers, which some narrate amounted to 100,000. 
The plan of attack adopted was for the infantry 
(after separating into small detachments,) to rush 
from all points of the compass, amid a storm of 
drums, trumpets, and the discharge of fire-arms, 
upon the panic-stricken Indians. In the height of 
their confusion, the cavalry rushed in upon them, 
trampling them under foot, and cutting them to 
pieces by lance and sword. Bloodhounds, objects 
of greater terror than even their masters, were at 
the same time let loose, and seizing upon their 
naked victims, overthrew and disembowelled them. 
The battle, if such it might be called, was of short 
duration, but of the bloodiest character, and of 
permanent effect. 

From that moment the yoke of servitude was 



40 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

riveted; a military tour brought every province into 
subjection. Heavy tribute was imposed, and exacted 
without remorse. A perpetual task consequently was 
demanded of every man, and, brought up in the 
idleness of an exuberant climate, there was not one 
to whom death was not preferable to such a life. 
Despair settled upon every countenance. The flex- 
ible, free, and noble mien of the savage, was 
exchanged for the slow and burdened gait of the 
overtaxed labourer. Groups, when they could meet 
together, spoke of the times for ever past, before the 
white man had brought anguish and accursed slavery. 
They sung in suppressed voices the ballads which 
rehearsed the deeds of their ancient caciques, and 
the prophecies which foretold the advent of strangers 
who should first oppress, and then extinguish their 
entire race. But hope, the last emotion which 
deserts the human soul, led them to distrust these 
very predictions, and to entertain the belief that the 
strangers would one day unfurl their canvass, and 
depart as suddenly as they came. They sometimes 



SUBJUGATION OF THE NATIVES. 41 

asked their oppressors, with an unintentional but 
touching irony, when they intended to re-embark and 
go back to heaven ? Alas, this expectation was too 
good to be realized ! On one pretext after another, 
they were hunted from every fastness, until thou- 
sands, escaping the sword, perished by famine and 
sickness, and the remainder by the severer torture of 
excessive and hopeless toil. 

Tt is thus that the first tragedy of this island, 
with the reign of its caciques, comes to an end. It 
is unhappily not without parallels in subsequent 
history. The injustice and dire oppression we have 
recited were by no means peculiar to that age, nor 
attributable to the character of Columbus. So far 
as the influence of that remarkable individual went, 
it operated towards equity and mercy. It is true 
that, in the early part of his intercourse with the 
Indians, he sent home five hundred of them to be 
slaves in Spain; but so far was that from being 
deemed improper, that the council of theologians 
who were summoned by Queen Isabella to consult 



42 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

on the question, " whether it was right to hold them 
as property," gave their judgment in the affirmative ; 
and nothing reversed the sentence but the high-toned 
principle of that famous woman, the mother of that 
Queen Catharine who defended her honour against 
Henry VIII. She commanded that every one of 
them should be sent back to his native country. 
But although the Admiral, on that point, did not 
equal his patroness, yet (as Las Casas observes,) 
" where the most learned men have doubted, it is 
not surprising that an unlearned mariner should err." 
In his ordinary communications with the islanders, 
he exceeded all his companions in gentleness and 
truth. He conciliated more by his kindness than 
he subdued by force. He says, beautifully, in one of 
his letters,* " They bartered, like idiots, cotton and 
gold for fragments of boxes, glasses, bottles, and jars, 
which I forbad as being unjust, and myself gave them 
many beautiful and acceptable presents which I had 
brought with me, taking nothing in return. I did 
* Select Letters, page 8. 



EEFLECTTONS. 43 

this that I might the more conciliate them, — that 
they might be led to become Christians, and be 
inclined to entertain a regard for the King and 
Queen, our princes, and all Spaniards." 

The result was, in fact, to be traced to the uni- 
versal principles of human nature. Man will never 
be an equal, where it is possible to be a superior; 
he will never consort with his fellows on the same 
terms, where he finds it practicable to exalt himself 
into a legislator or a monarch. Strength will assume 
to itself the rights of weakness, and wisdom will take 
advantage of the folly of ignorance. It would have 
been an anomaly in the history of our race if these 
discoverers had adhered to equity, even had they not 
been inflamed by a more powerful passion than that 
of geographical research. But, possessed as they 
were by that 

" Sacra auri fames," 

that deadly " hunger after gold/' which in all ages, 
and in all modifications of society, has been too 



44 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

mighty for the strongest barriers of conscience, what 
other issue than the one we have indicated could 
have sprung from their footsteps? 

There is but one voice which has been articulately 
and invariably lifted up against this wrong, and that 
the voice of Christianity. In the midst of the con- 
nivance of human laws, and the clamorous opposition 
of human passions, that has perpetually asserted the 
rights of man. It has separated him from all mere 
circumstances and conventional peculiarities, and, 
regarding him in his proper nature, has demanded 
for him respect. It has signified not whether he 
was ignorant or sage, barbarous or polished ; whether 
he wandered painted in primeval forests, or sat 
enthroned in jewelled ermine ; it has steadily claimed 
for him reverence and justice. It has estimated him 
above gold, above power, above the great globe itself. 
It has recognised him as immortal, as the image and 
companion of the Deity, and on that ground decided 
that none shall do him dishonour without a penalty. 

These principles, long suppressed, still dawn but 



1 



REFLECTIONS. 45 

faintly on our own national mind. Sometimes, in 
repentant mood, we wish we had achieved our colonial 
empire with less injustice. But what has been won 
by the sword, must, for ages afterwards, be by the 
sword retained. There is a point at which amend- 
ment is impossible, and mercy lifts up her voice too 
late. What will be the doom of Britain., is a question 
that futurity alone can answer. Let us hope that 
Heaven may avert from her the just ignominy of 
Spain. 



46 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

CHAPTER III. 

'J£"BsgHE Spanish colonists did not long retain their 
Isle!! ill- gained superiority. As the old country 
extended its conquests to the American 
main land, the importance of the island in her eyes 
began to decline, so that at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century it appears to have become nearly 
a desert, 

At that period those seas swarmed with bucca- 
neers — piratical adventurers from nearly every nation 
of the Old World. A party of these desperate 
bandits occupied the small island of Tortuga, from 
which they were accustomed to make predatory 
incursions into St. Domingo, (as the whole country 
was now styled, from the name of its chief city,) for 
the purpose of securing the swine and oxen that had 
been introduced by the Spaniards, and had become 
wild. Most of these particular individuals happened 



THE FRENCH COLONY. 4/ 

to be of French origin, and having appealed to 
Louis XIV.. who was flattered by the prospect of 
obtaining a rich possession in those regions, they 
received assistance, and by some force and intrigue 
possessed themselves of the whole western part of 
the island. 

This was the germ of the French colony. The 
tract of country so conceded contained about a thou- 
sand square leagues, exceedingly irregular in its 
character, intersected with mountains, and having 
plains confined and difficult of access. Its value on 
these accounts was greatly inferior to that of the 
territories remaining in possession of the Spaniards. 
But the settlers formed the determination to subject 
the soil to systematic culture. Their measures were 
followed by great success, and attracted the attention 
of persons of capital in the mother country, which 
imparted fresh impetus to the onward movement. 
The sugar-cane clothed all the valleys, where irriga- 
gation was abundant and the soil fertile. On the 
sea-coast the cocoa-palm was carefully superintended, 



48 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

and made to yield considerable returns, its produce 
having been found to be in great demand. Those 
eminences which were encircled by loftier mountains 
were covered by coffee plantations, divided and 
guarded with scrupulous care, and producing crops 
of great value ; while in the remoter parts the cotton 
and the indigo plants gave ample contributions to the 
annually swelling riches. In 1788, the exports of 
the colony exceeded in quantity those of all the 
British West Indian Islands taken together, and 
amounted in sterling money to £7,487,000, and the 
gross produce, including the Spanish portion, to 
£18,400,000; while its imports, in manufactures of 
the parent state, were no less than £10,000,000 
sterling. More than half of this immense produce 
was re-exported from France to other states, and the 
commerce thence resulting, which employed in all 
its departments 1600 vessels, with 27,000 sailors, 
formed the chief support of her maritime power. 
" France," therefore," says Mr. Alisou,* " at that 
critical moment of her history, had no reason to envy 
* History of Europe. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 49 

the united dependencies of all the other states of 
Europe." But he has perused the page of history, 
and marked the events of common life with small 
discrimination, who has not perceived that the value 
of wealth to an individual or a people very much 
depends upon the manner in which it is acquired. 
What is obtained by oppression and bad faith, or any 
other form of injustice, is but the semblance of pro- 
perty. " There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath 
nothing." At the very moment that he may be 
attracting all eyes, and exciting the envy of every 
rival, the word may have proceeded from Him by 
whom actions are weighed, and weighed with an 
equity which admits of no bribe, that the dream shall 
be dispersed, and the reality made visible to the 
world. 

In order that a correct idea may be formed of 
the manner in which France not only lost this island, 
but deluged it with blood, it will be necessary to 
survey the peculiar state of society which then existed 
in it. 

4 



50 a GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

It consisted of three perfectly distinct elements ; 
the whites, the mulattoes, and the blacks. The 
whites included the European proprietors, generally 
sprung from families of some distinction, and, by 
residence in a colony of so much prosperity, of con- 
siderable wealth. They were not remarkable for 
ferocity, but were not wanting in pride, luxury, and 
immorality. In the mulattoes are numbered, not 
only those to whom that name is strictly applied, 
viz., the children of an African and a European 
parent, but all the subsequent varieties in which any 
portion of xlfrican blood appears ; for it is well known 
that in some individuals the white ancestry so much 
predominates as to redeem the complexion almost 
entirely from the fatal shade. These persons, although 
nominally free, because belonging to no individual 
master, were regarded as public property, and occu- 
pied a most mortifying position. They were forbidden 
to hold any public office, however insignificant. They 
were not allowed to exercise any profession to which 
a liberal education was deemed necessary. All the 



MULATTOES. 51 

naval and military departments, all degrees in law, 
medicine, and divinity, were, appropriated exclusively 
to the whites. A mulatto could not be a priest, nor 
a lawyer, nor a physician, nor a surgeon, nor an 
apothecary, nor a schoolmaster, whatever might be 
his intellectual qualifications. From the pressure of 
these wrongs there was no escape. Even the courts 
of what was called justice gave permanence to the 
oppression. A man of colour could rarely, by any 
force of evidence, convict a white criminal. Even 
if he succeeded in proving an act of violence against 
him, he was let off on payment of an insignificant 
fine ; while if he were himself convicted of lifting his 
hand to a colourless oppressor, the hand was to be 
struck off with a hatchet, — the hue of his skin pass- 
ing over to his deed. There was one circumstance, 
however, in the condition of these persons that ren- 
dered them formidable to the colony. They were 
allowed to acquire property, and therefore, in addition 
to all the ordinary incitements to accumulation, were 
inspired with the ambition of rising to equality, at 



52 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

least in one point, with their white superiors. To 
such an extent did they succeed, that many of them 
held large estates, and, as a body, they possessed at 
this crisis about one-third of the whole soil of the 
colony, and nearly one-fourth of the negro slaves ; 
and, notwithstanding a law passed by the whites to 
prevent any of them embarking for France, a large 
number had obtained their education in that country, 
and had returned with the tastes and information of 
European gentlemen. Nor ought it to be overlooked 
that the law which required them to serve in dis- 
proportionate numbers, and without pay, in the 
colonial militia, trained them almost without excep- 
tion to the profession of arms, and added the last 
inflammable ingredient to their position and their 
character. The third class was composed of the 
enslaved negroes. These unfortunate persons had 
been conveyed, in all the depth of their ignorance 
and superstition, from the sands of Africa. They 
had, however, the sensibilities and capacities which 
no circumstances totally extinguish in the human 



SLAVES. 53 

mind. While the vast majority sank hopelessly 
under their bondage, there were a few, of an original 
force of character and love of freedom, which made 
them not quite insignificant. Two circumstances, 
however, external to themselves, raised them to a 
positively formidable position. One of these was 
their vast numbers. The number of white persons 
is reckoned to have been 30,000 ; of free mulattoes 
40,000 ; but of African slaves 500,000. Who could 
look upon such a multitude, and not dread the first 
spark of dissatisfaction? The other was, the fact 
that, for many years, daring and adventurous indivi- 
duals among them had succeeded in escaping from 
their masters, and taking possession of remote fast- 
nesses in the centre of the island. So vigorous and 
bloody was the warfare which these desperate spirits 
maintained with their former proprietors, that a 
treaty was at last entered into on the part of both 
French and Spanish authorities, by which certain 
parts of the country were ceded to them, on condi- 
tion that they should restore future runaway slaves 



54 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

for a certain remuneration. But, although this pre- 
vented further abstraction from the estates, the fact 
had become universally known that there was such 
a thing as independence, even for an African, — such 
a thing as setting at defiance the maxim which pro- 
nounced him the perpetual property of another race. 
A single drop of liberty had fallen upon the parched 
lip, and was soon to act like the drop from the clouds 
of heaven, which finds its way into the crevice of 
the rock, there to lie until the frost of winter gives 
it such expansion as hurls the iron precipice into 
the stream, which sings for ages over it its song 
of triumph. 

Such was the critical condition of society in her 
favourite colony, when the mother country entered 
upon her own great revolution. The doctrines of 
Liberty and Equality, which flew with the speed of 
lightning through all parts of France, could not but 
reflect their gleams upon the shores of St. Domingo. 
By a decree of the French constituent iVssembly, 
each colony was empowered to express its wishes to 



DEPUTATION TO PAEIS. 55 

the future government, through the medium of an 
assembly of representatives chosen by the people. 
The white planters acted on this permission, but 
excluded from their constituencies all those proprie- 
tors and other persons who were stained with colour. 
This started the quarrel. It was in vain that the 
mulattoes remonstrated; their claims were met with 
scorn. The Assembly issued the virtuous declaration, 
that "they would rather die than participate their 
political rights with a bastard and degenerate race." 
The mulatto proprietors sent a deputation to Paris 
to represent their case. When they arrived, they 
found the National Assembly not remarkably dis- 
posed to listen to them, probably from the pressure 
of other affairs, and from the difficulties presented 
by the colonies. But they were received with marked 
attention by the Abbe Gregoire, Lafayette, and other 
leading men connected with a society, partly philan- 
thropical and partly political, called "Les Amis des 
Noirs, " — the Friends of the Blacks. They were 
received with distinction at their tables, and had 



56 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

their sense of wrong stimulated by their opinions. 
This society, and one bearing a similar name, which 
has long been the glory of our own country, have 
been denounced by the French writers as the insti- 
gators of that first step of the general insurrection 
which immediately followed. But whatever may have 
been the case with respect to the French society, 
no charge could be more false with regard to the 
English one. Mr. Clarkson, being at that period 
in Paris, was thrown much into the society of the 
coloured deputies. He was naturally interested in 
their affairs, but shrank from the violence which they 
threatened in case of disappointment. Having dis- 
covered a plot for the destruction of his own life, 
Mr. Clarkson left Paris for London, whither he was 
shortly followed by Oge, the chief of these gentle- 
men. He entreated temporary help towards his 
passage home, and Mr. Clarkson gave him £30, 
with which he proceeded to America. This was the 
whole of the connexion which the friends of African 
freedom in England, — most of whom, by their reli- 



MULATTO KEBELLION, 57 

gious principles, were bound to discountenance all 
appeal to arms, — had with the mulatto rebellion. Oge 
did not tarry long in America, but hastened to land 
secretly at St. Domingo. His brother had made 
preparations for the measure he had in view, which 
was to raise the standard of revolt among persons 
of his own colour. He imagined that the determi- 
nation to accomplish their freedom was much more 
general than he found it. His followers never 
became numerous, and the white colonists succeeded, 
after one or two bloody engagements, to suppress 
them. Oge escaped to the Spanish territory, but, 
on being demanded, was delivered up, and after 
secret trial condemned, with his second in command, 
to a degrading death. " This being done," the latter 
part of the sentence runs, "they are to be taken to 
the Place d'armes, and to the opposite side of that 
appointed for the execution of white criminals," (the 
honour of white criminals was to be preserved by 
this delicacy,) " and have their arms, legs, and ribs 
broken, while alive upon the scaffold erected for that 



58 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

purpose, and placed by the executioner upon wheels, 
with their faces turned towards heaven, there to 
remain as long as it shall please God to preserve 
life ; after this, their heads to be severed from their 
bodies, and exposed upon stakes. Their goods to 
be confiscated." 

We mention this, which is a specimen of several 
executions which occurred immediately afterwards, 
for the purpose of pointing out one of the principal 
incitements to the more extensive insurrection which 
succeeded. When the news reached Paris, they pro- 
duced decisive effects. The question of the internal 
government of the colony was then in the course of 
debate in the National Assembly. For some time it 
had been carried on by the foes and the supporters 
of the whites, with almost equal power. This new 
development of their character turned the victory 
against them. Tragedies and dramas, founded on 
the story of Oge, were characteristically acted in all 
the theatres, and public indignation mounted to an 
impetuous storm. Robespierre rose in his place, and 



NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 59 

gave utterance to a sentence which passed into a 
watchword — "Perish the colonies, rather than sacri- 
fice one atom of our principles." Thus animated, 
the National Assembly passed a decree, declaring all 
the people of colour not only entitled to vote, but 
eligible to sit personally as members of the Colonial 
Assemblies. This decree, it will be distinctly per- 
ceived, had no reference to the negroes. It was 
confined exclusively to the mulattoes, between whom 
and the whites the dispute had been conducted. 
The slaves had taken no part whatever in the move- 
ments of either class of their masters. They had 
pursued their unrequited callings up to this moment 
without any interruption, but not, it would appear, 
without deep thought. There is evidence that the 
idea of resistance on their part had become infused 
into them during the time of Oge's rebellion, for 
that unfortunate man left behind him a confession, 
in which he forewarned the planters of plans which 
they had actually concerted. That warning was 
neglected ; for the planters deemed their slaves 



60 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

incapable of union, or of anything requiring thought 
and determination. But the murdered man's pre- 
diction was verified, and that three days earlier than 
he had foretold. 

When the decree declaring the mulattoes eligible 
to places in the Assembly reached the island, the 
colonists were thrown into agonies, and they had 
hardly recovered self-possession enough to hope that 
their case was not desperate, before the news darted 
from shore to shore like an electric spark, — "The 
blacks have risen!" They had risen. The French 
writers supply the most ample details of the horrors 
they perpetrated, with the view, possibly, of repelling 
posterity from similar crimes. But we have no such 
opinion of the unassailable purity of the human mind, 
as to believe that the contemplation of vice is the 
best means of acquiring virtue. There is such an 
affinity to evil remaining in the best spirits, that it 
is at least safer to avoid familiarity with wickedness ; 
and, in the language of that king who had personally 
tested both methods, "to avoid it, and to pass not 



NEGEO EEBELLION. 61 

by it;" to trust more to the attraction of the guiding 
star than to the warning of the hidden reef, which 
is often seen too late to be useful. Let Bryan 
Edwards' account, which has never been disputed, 
suffice to sum up this first scene of the tragedy. 
" It was computed," says he, " that within two 
months after the revolt first began, upwards of two 
thousand white persons, of all conditions and ages, 
had been massacred ; that one hundred and eighty 
sugar plantations, and about nine hundred coffee, 
cotton, and indigo settlements had been destroyed, 
and twelve hundred families reduced from opulence 
to absolute beggary." After this shock, the whites 
retaliated, and outdid the negroes in their cruelties. 
" Of the blacks," continues the same writer, "it was 
reckoned that upwards of ten thousand had perished 
by the sword, or by famine, and some hundreds by 
the hands of the executioner, many of them, I am 
sorry to say," (for Edwards was naturally a friend 
to the colonists,) " under the torture of the wheel." 
During this horrible period, the mulattoes had, 



62 A GLIMPSE OF HAYT1. 

to secure their own property, rejoined the whites, 
and their combined power would probably have served 
for a longer time to suppress the Africans ; but a 
singular circumstance threw parties into their former 
opposition. When the effects of their decree reached 
the National Assembly at Paris, it filled them with 
consternation, and by an act as precipitate as the first 
they annulled it, and sent out a command again to 
disenfranchise the mulattoes ! " France and the 
colonists deceive us," the mulattoes cry; "let us 
again to arms !" The two thunder clouds rushed into 
unison, and the lightning shot anew upon the infa- 
tuated whites. " The hand of God" (says a native 
writer,) " seemed to cover with a bandage the eyes 
of the colonists, that they might not discover the 
justice of the reclamations of the oppressed, nor the 
terrible consequences of their own crimes ; for, in 
His eyes, to make an equal a slave, is one of the 
greatest crimes. The prayers and the complaints of 
the free mounted to heaven together with the groans 
of the bond. The negroes and the mulattoes feel 



CONSEQUENCES. 63 

injustice like other men, and vengeance is so sweet 
to those who have tasted slavery!"* The horrors 
of the first attack were then repeated. The beautiful 
city of St. Francois was reduced to ashes, and the 
most fertile valleys were converted into deserts. 
The white inhahitants concealed themselves in the 
ruins of the demolished houses, and trembled for 
their lives in mountain fastnesses. One is relieved 
by finding even an occasional gleam of goodness 
amid unbridled ferocity. The writer just quoted 
says, in speaking of the death of a French colonel 
whom every one execrated, " One of his black slaves 
alone, named Pierre, showed himself inconsolable. 
He re-united the limbs of his master, scattered in 
different parts of the town, and interred them near 
the cemetery, for the clergy refused sepulture within 
it. Pierre then threw himself on the grave of his 
master, offered a short prayer to God, and terminated 
his own life." 

Immense numbers left the island, some passing 
* Madion : Histoire d' Haiti. Port-au-Prince, 1847. 



64 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

over to America, and others proceeding to Britain, 
where they met under similar woes the royalists of 
their mother country. By means of these persons, 
such representations were made to our government, 
as to induce them to send out a fleet to conquer the 
island, and to convert it into a British colony. A 
small army, miserably ineffective, accordingly went 
forth, captured Port-au-Prince, and so much alarmed 
the French commissioners that they issued a decree, 
in the heat of the moment, containing an idea, for 
the first time now uttered, that all the blacks should 
be free. This was intended to win them over to 
oppose the English invasion, but rather than do this 
they fled to the mountains, to swell the forces of the 
independent chiefs. 

•' It was." says an accurate writer, "at this moment 
of utter confusion and disorganisation, when British. 
French, mulatto es. and blacks were all acting their 
respective parts in the turmoil, and all inextricably 
intermingled in a bewildering war. which was neither 
a foreign war. nor a civil war. nor a war of races, but 



TOUSSAINT LOUVEKTURE. 65 

a composition of all three; it was at this moment 
that Toussaint L'Ouverture appeared, the spirit and 
ruler of the storm." 



A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



CHAPTER IV. 



$j3**F3? GUIS SAINT was born 012 an estate near the 
|||g^S town of St. Francois. His father is said to 
have been, in Africa, a person of some dis- 
tinction. Certainly he handed down to his son an 
intellect of great force, and a bodily constitution 
capable of incredible fatigue. It was a remarkable 
circumstance that this boy should have been one 
of the few of his oppressed race who had the 
advantage of a little education. An intelligent 
black, of the name of Pierre Baptiste, lived on 
the same estate with him. He had acquired some 
knowledge from the Catholic priests, which he faith- 
fully reconveyed to this shrewd pupil. Speedily 
the lad found himself the proprietor of what was 
better than gold, — some knowledge of reading and 
writing, of arithmetic and geometry, besides a little 
rude Latin. He must have had a kind of general 



TOUSSAINT. 67 

sagacity, for it may be gathered from some incidents 
that he acted as horse doctor on the estate, and was 
raised to be coachman to his master, — a situation 
which gave him the opportunity of exploring the 
library of the great house, where he imbibed an 
amount of general knowledge, especially in respect 
to European history, which afterwards created no 
small astonishment. The discovery of such a man, 
in the heart of such a population, has filled some 
writers with an ecstacy that has led to indiscriminate 
eulogy, which in its turn has given rise to a reaction- 
ary depreciation and abuse. But it is remarkable 
that no writer, whether French or English, nearly all 
of whom are destitute of goodwill to the negro cause, 
has denied his extraordinary intelligence, and, what 
is yet more remarkable, the singular purity of his 
life. 

When the rebellion first broke out, Toussaint was 
forty-eight years old. He was earnestly entreated 
to join the negro army, but he refused to do so. 
He recommended caution and forbearance, and shrank 



68 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

from bloodshed. As the insurrection spread, he 
understood that the property on which he lived was 
marked off for conflagration. The first generous act 
recorded of him then transpired. He warned his 
master, and concealed him in the woods. Then, 
ascertaining that a ship was about sailing for America, 
he had him conveyed into it, gathering all the pro- 
duce of the plantation which could be procured at 
the moment, and shipping it with him, that he might 
not be unprovided for on a foreign shore. 

When he found himself thus involuntarily free, 
he joined the negro army, which, from a singular 
feeling of loyalty, had united itself to the Spaniards 
occupying the eastern part of the island, and with 
them fought for the Bourbons. His military skill, 
so suddenly called into action, astonished every one. 
The Spanish and Republican leaders were alike sur- 
prised by his rapid and successful movements. It 
was one of the latter who exclaimed on one occasion, 
" That man makes an opening everywhere !" which 
led to his being called ' k Toussaint, the Opener," or 



GENEKAL LAVEAUX. t) l J 

Toussaint L'Ouverture. But, honoured as be was 
by the Royalists, his stay among them was brief. 
When he heard that the hasty announcement of 
emancipation, made by the French Commissioners, 
had been solemnly confirmed by a decree of the 
National Convention, he intimated his readiness to 
serve under the colours of the Republic. He revealed 
his wish to a mulatto officer, but he, forgetting his 
own origin, said he would enter into no negociation 
with a slave. The French general, Laveaux, himself 
has the honour of having first acted respectfully 
towards the negro. He promised him a place of 
command, and the favour of his friendship. He had 
no reason to repent his confidence ; on one occasion 
he owed his life to his gallantry. An insurrection 
had broken out at the Cape, and Laveaux was seized 
and imprisoned: on hearing this, Toussaint placed 
himself at the head of 10,000 men, with whom he 
marched to the town, and, threatening a siege, com- 
pelled the inhabitants to open the gates. He entered 
at the head of two battalions and a body of cavalry, 



70 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

proceeded at once to the prison, and set Laveaux at 
liberty. " Though the town," says a native, " was 
inundated with black troops, such was their leader's 
dominion over them, that not one act of impropriety 
was committed." Such, in fact, was the natural 
facility of command belonging to this remarkable 
individual, that all the conflicting elements of the 
island kept silence before him. The men of his 
own colour adored him, the mulattoes feared him, 
and the French were thankful for his alliance ; so 
that, at the close of a year, Laveaux perceived that 
it would be better to acknowledge the power which 
he, in fact, swayed. He found for himself an 
appointment to the National Assembly at Paris, and 
appointed Toussaint his successor as Commander-in- 
chief of the French forces in St. Domingo. 

Some men, who distinguish themselves in sub- 
ordinate positions, disappoint public hope when they 
acquire a station of command. The difficulty of the 
ascent supplies the place of principle, and it is not 
till the summit is reached, that it is ascertained 



ELEVATION OF TOTJSSAINT. 71 

whether there be innate greatness, and the capacity 
for permanent elevation. Toussaint, when he arrived 
at this point, swept the whole horizon with the 
scrutiny of one born to pre-eminence. He at once 
interpreted the commission of Providence. He judged 
himself to have been chosen from among his people 
to be their deliverer and ruler. The means which 
he adopted in the prosecution of that purpose were 
such as his circumstances and education suggested. 
Were we to try them by that standard of the per- 
fectly right, or, which is the same thing, the perfectly 
good, which Revelation has discovered to us, they 
would not abide the test ; and who is there, among 
all who have ever appealed to arms, that can pass 
untouched through that crucible? How vast the 
deductions that must be made in every instance, on 
the ground of inadequate information, of infuriated 
passions, of the prevalent fallacies and traditional 
lies of human society ! It is high honour to generals 
of either ancient or modern times, when we are able 
to find in them a few tolerable virtues, — a few 



72 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

gleams of moral superiority. The Roman whom his 
country compelled to head the army, and who, when 
he had gained the day, as hastily returned to the 
labours of the soil, — and the first President of the 
Western Republic, who conducted an unequal conflict 
to a permanent peace, and then, counseling the 
nation he had formed with true wisdom, retired to 
Ins family and his fields, — stand out from the whole 
firmament of warriors as stars of unwonted brilliance. 
It is to affirm the scantiest truth, that to the names 
of Cincinnatus and of Washington, history has added 
that of Toussaint L'Ouverture ! 

The first exercise of his power was quietly to 
remove all inconvenient persons. A general who 
had been sent from France, he sent home again 
as unsuitable to the climate and the people. A 
commissioner who had a remarkable talent for 
intermeddling with civil affairs, he despatched with 
important messages to the Directory. Several other 
officious individuals procured equally honourable pre- 
texts for revisiting their friends in Paris, and leaving 



GENERAL MAITLAXD. To 

the shores of St. Domingo more free for the move- 
ments of the Commander-in-chief; while he, per- 
ceiving that all this might be misinterpreted in the 
absence of some tokens of confidence in France, sent 
to that country for education his two sons, according 
to the European writers, but his son and son-in-law, 
according to a native historian, whose authority in 
a case like this is to be preferred.- 

His next aim was to clear the island of the 
British army. That expedition was, from the first, 
ill-advised and unfortunate, and it was with small 
reluctance that General Maitland, saving as much 
honour as he could for his sick and dissatisfied 
troops, averted the wrath of the gathering blacks, 

* The words, "Son fils Isaac, et son beau-fils Placide," 
occur in a very interesting work which has recently appeared 
from the pen of Thomas Madion, Director of the National 
Lyceum, Port-au-Prince. This gentleman, whom we met 
during our visit to the island, is a native mulatto, and the 
first of his race who has ventured upon so large a contribu- 
tion to the literature of his country. She has uttered for the 
first time, through him, the story of her wrongs and struggles. 



74 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

and promised to forsake the island. The day when 
the British ships received their retiring forces, was 
one of rejoicing to all parties. The inhabitants of 
the capital went forth to meet L'Ouverture with 
brilliant ceremonies. The clergy, with the cross 
and incense, led the way. The planters threw them- 
selves before him, and blessed him as their libera- 
tor. White ladies of the first rank, on horseback 
and in open carriages, escorted by native white 
youths, joined the chorus of benediction. 

General Maitland received him with equal enthu- 
siasm, and with greater splendour. He entertained 
him after the beloved manner of an Englishman, at 
a sumptuous dinner, and when the repast was ended, 
presented to him all the silver plate with which the 
table was covered. Retiring from the tent in which 
the banquet had been served to the house of Govern- 
ment, which the English had built, and which is still 
used as the President's palace, the General presented 
him, in the name of his Britannic Majesty, with two 
brass cannons and all the ornaments of the palace. 



INTERVIEW. 75 

After this, an incident occurred equally honour- 
able to Toussaint and to Maitland. It is told with 
so much brevity and spirit by the native historian 
just referred to, that we shall give a close rendering 
of his words. " After having embarked," says he, 
" all the European troops, Maitland resolved to pay 
L'Ouverture a visit. He had so much confidence 
in the chief, whose integrity he extolled, that he was 
not afraid to pass, accompanied only by four officers, 
across a country overflowing with armed troops. 
Toussaint had just received from St. Domingo " (the 
capital city,) " a letter from Roume, who exhorted 
him to seize the opportunity of arresting Maitland, 
telling him it was a duty he owed to the Republic. 
Maitland learned on the road this treachery of the 
agent of the Directory, but he would not return. 
He reached the camp of the Commander-in-chief. 
He was detained in the ante-chamber for more than 
an hour, and during that interval experienced some 
uneasiness. The Commander-in-chief, who was dic- 
tating his reply to Roume, at length presented him- 



76 A GLIMPSE OE HAYTI. 

self to Maitland, holding in his hand two unsealed 
letters. " General, read these letters," said he 
to him, "before we begin our conversation; the 
one is from the Commissary Roume ; the other is 
my reply ; I did not wish to see you before finishing 
my answer; you will see by it how secure you are 
with me, and how incapable I am of treachery." 
The following passage from Toussaint's letter struck 
General Maitland with admiration :— " What," (said 
he to Roume ? ) " have I not given my word to the 
English General ? How do you suppose that I could 
cover myself with infamy by breaking it ? The trust 
which he reposes in my good faith induces him to 
give himself up to me, and I should be dishonoured 
for ever if I followed your counsels. I am entirely 
devoted to the cause of the Republic, but I shall not 
serve it at the expense of my conscience and my 
honour." 

The path being now clear, his attention w 7 as first 
directed to the cultivation of the soil. He laboured 
to correct the influence of bloodshed, and induce the 



FREEDOM. t t 

people to excel in the peaceful arts. Many of the 
planters who had joined his standard were reinvested 
with their former estates, but without any property 
in their former slaves. He held out also to those 
who had emigrated during the war every inducement 
to return, pledging himself to re-establish them in 
their properties, and assuring them that the fruits 
of their enterprise would meet with his best pro- 
tection. Many returned, bringing with them the 
slaves who had accompanied them in their flight, but 
who became free as soon as they landed : — 

" They touched their country, and their shackles fell." 

He laboured also to raise the moral character of 
the people. From their circumstances ignorant and 
brutal, although with quick apprehension and warm 
affections, the first fixe or six years of their nominal 
freedom had tended only to aggravate every evil 
quality. Nothing so powerfully relaxes the energies 
of reason, and debauches the whole moral nature, as 
scenes of revenge and massacre. It was indispen- 



78 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

sable to adopt, in the first instance, the most rigid 
discipline, united at the same time with skilful 
appeals to the feelings. "While Toussaint, there- 
fore, gave to all his generals the power of life and 
death, and required them to control their troops with 
the loaded pistol, he attempered their rigour by his 
own communications. He never lost an opportunity 
of befriending an unfortunate person, of reuniting 
families, or of rewarding particular instances of in- 
dustry. He would stop when he heard a quarrel, 
and inquire into its causes. Even the tears of a 
sufferer would make him leap from his horse, and 
ask if he could render any service. An old man of 
seventy years of age, who had returned from America, 
was imprisoned by the authorities on his landing. 
Toussaint learnt his name. He hastened in person 
to the spot, and set him free, loading him with 
benefits : they had been fellow-slaves on the same 
estate. Immorality found its most emphatic dis- 
couragement in his own character. Even his enemies 
admit his conduct in this respect to have been unim- 
peachable. He stood, in fact, almost alone in the 



CHARACTER OF TOUSSATNT. 79 

unity and peace of his domestic circle. To the 
young person whom he had chosen for his own in 
the days of their common bondage, he adhered with 
unshaken constancy, through all his conflicts and 
successes, down to his last moment; an evidence of 
itself, if there had been no other, considering the 
moral standard of the country, of an original and 
noble mind. Embued, too, with a religious spirit. 
which, under happier skies, might have well deve- 
loped itself, one of his first steps, after the attainment 
of peace, was to restore the services of Christian 
worship ; and, with a comprehensive judgment, to 
which his white predecessors had not ascended, he 
proclaimed universal liberty of conscience, of which 
some Protestants from the United States at once 
availed themselves. Indeed, he did not consider it 
otherwise than consistent with his office, to take his 
stand at the head of his army, and attempt to move 
the hearts and to reform the rude manners of his 
troops, by appealing with cordial eloquence to the 
sufferings and the glory of Jesus Christ. 




80 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



CHAPTER V. 

t^jHILE St. Domingo, under these influences, 
was rising as if by enchantment from her 
desolation, Napoleon Buonaparte attained 
to the first Consulate of the French Republic. The 
number was not small, in the most enlightened 
countries in the world, who believed that in the 
genius of that individual they were to hail the day- 
star of a purer civil freedom than had yet dawned 
upon our race. The unparalleled splendour of his 
first enterprises, the extreme rapidity with which his 
steps to pre-eminence followed each other, and the 
numerous points in which his measures contrasted 
with the old systems both of warfare and government, 
covered the most despondent spirits with the glory 
of hopes uncherished before among the nations. 
Was it surprising that Tous saint should be dazzled 
with qualities that did bear some remote analogy to 



NAPOLEON. 81 

his own ? Was it wonderful that he should be unable 
to conceive of the gigantic selfishness which reigned 
in that breast ? Who shall accuse him of a singular 
error, when he dreamt that the First Consul could 
take pleasure in the success of another individual, 
and rejoice in triumphs which were not his own? 
Can any one blame that generous trust which 
prompted him to superscribe one of his despatches, — 
"From the First of the blacks to the First of the 
whites"? Brevity worthy of Leonidas, but policy 
which would have proved fatal to a mightier than 
he ! The pride of the Corsican could not brook the 
untutored freedom of the African. The despatches 
received no reply. Respectful entreaties followed, 
but in vain. The most unrelenting breast which 
ever brooded over the subjugation of a world had 
formed its purpose. In vain his own ministers 
remonstrated. Those who knew the island warned 
him without success. He had just completed a 
peace with Britain, and this reply to one of his 
counsellors revealed that part of his secret reasons 



8*2 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

which he thought proper to express: — "I want,'' 
said he, "I want, I tell you, to get rid of 60,000 
men." 

Nothing could exceed the energy with which the 
expedition was fitted out. "The forces,'' says Ali- 
son. " collected in different harbours of the Republic 
for this purpose, was the greatest that Europe ever 
sent to the New World. Thirty -five ships of the 
line, twenty-one frigates, and above eighty smaller 
vessels, having on board 21,000 land-troops, were 
soon assembled. They resembled rather the prepa- 
rations for the subjugation of a rival power, than the 
forces destined for the reduction of a distant colonial 
settlement." The land-troops ultimately swelled to 
35,000 men, and these by no means the refuse of 
the army. They were almost all composed of the 
conquerors of Hohenlinden, and were led by the 
most distinguished generals of Moreau'a army, — Le 
Gere, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, being Com- 
mander-in-chief. 

So little did the brave islanders suspect such a 



INVASION. 83 

movement on the part of the mother country, that 
had it not been for the accidental detention of the 
fleet in the Bay of Biscay, its actual appearance on 
their shores would have been the first indication of 
its existence. But circumstances enabled an Ame- 
rican vessel to reveal the impending ruin. Toussaint 
took his resolution in a moment. He despatched it 
all over the island, in these words:— "A son owes 
submission to his mother, but, if she unnaturally 
aims to destroy her offspring, nothing remains but 
to entrust vengeance to God." 

When he said this, he had some expectation of 
the assistance of the English. But the moment that 
reported to him the appearance of the French fleet, 
told him also of the peace of Amiens, and the con- 
sequent destruction of his hope of external aid. He 
was thus placed solitarily in the path of France. 
He hastened to Cape Samana, to obtain, with his 
own eyes, a sight of the armament. He was struck 
with astonishment at the spectacle. Sails covered 
the ocean as far as the eye could reach ; there 



84 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

appeared no boundary to the multitude. For a 
moment his heart quailed, and he exclaimed, "We 
are lost; all France is coming to St. Domingo." 
But recovering his resolution, he sent forth couriers 
in all directions to prepare for resistance. 

Le Clerc gave orders to land at the Cape, but 
he could not find a pilot. He seized eventually upon 
the harbour master, a coloured man, named Sanjos, 
put a rope about his neck, and threatened him with 
instant death if he refused to conduct the vessel, 
offering a reward of £2000 if he would. But nothing 
would induce him to facilitate his country's ruin. 
He refused to yield either to reward or threat. 

Le Clerc next addressed a letter to Christophe, 
the general in command of the black troops in the 
neighbourhood, in which he said he meant to enter 
Capetown, and would hold him responsible for what- 
ever might happen. Christophe, undeceived by the 
flatteries in which this letter was enveloped, replied 
that if he did enter Capetown, it would not be until 
after it was reduced to ashes. ("Allez dire au General 



LANDING. 85 

Le Clerc que les Francois ne marcheront ici que sur 
un monceau de cendres et que la terre les brulera.") 
Le Clerc, thus repulsed, landed by hazard, and 
Christophe instantly set fire to the town, saving all 
the white inhabitants, and carrying the stores into 
the interior. 

The other division of the fleet having effected a 
landing on the opposite shore of the island, the 
unnatural war speedily raged like a conflagration. 
To trace it through its various stages, and to watch 
all its fearful alternations, might convey an im- 
pression of the power with which a sense of wrong 
nerved the weaker against the stronger, and made 
an uncivilised and almost untrained people, aided 
indeed by their country and their clime, no despi- 
cable opponent to an army which had filled Europe 
with its fame ; but warfare, even when associated 
with a noble patriotism, is so forbidding, that we 
must again pass over in silence its horrid and dis- 
gusting details. 

When Le Clerc informed his master, Napoleon, 



Ob A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

that, magnificent as his army was, it could no 
advance to victory without obstruction; but that, on 
the contrary, fresh supplies must be sent to save 
it from total ruin, a stroke of policy, hitherto held 
in reserve, was resorted to. It will be remembered 
that Toussaint's son and son-in-law had been sent to 
France for education, under the impulse of a too 
unguarded generosity. Buonaparte conceived the 
idea of sending them back to their father, and 
attempting to deceive him into submission through 
the medium of parental love. Accompanied by 
a tutor, they were despatched from Capetown to 
Ennery, thirty leagues off, among the mountains, 
where the family of Toussaint lived. One of these 
young men has given an account of the scene. The 
negroes, he says, received them all along the way 
with their usual rapturous kindness. They inter- 
preted their return as an infallible sign of the fidelity 
of France; and their polished demeanour inspired 
them with hopes of the future which they could not 
utter. Toussaint was absent on their arrival, but 



TOUSSATNT AND HIS SONS. 87 

their mother received them with delirious joy, and 
spent the whole evening with them in emotions not 
to be described. The meeting with the father, in 
the morning, was equally touching, for the affections 
vastly preponderate in that injured race. " The 
father and the two sons," reports the tutor, "threw 
themselves on each other's arms. I saw them shed 
tears; and wishing," adds he, with diplomatic heart- 
lessness, " to take advantage of a period which I 
conceived to be favourable, I stopped Toussaint at 
the moment he stretched out his arms to me." It 
was to hand to him the letter of Napoleon. "We 
have made known to your children," ran that docu- 
ment, "the sentiments by which we are animated. 
Assist, by your talents and your counsels, the Captain 
General. What can you desire? — the freedom of the 
blacks? You know, that in all countries we govern 
we have given it to the people who had it not. 
Do you desire consideration — honours — fortune? 
i With the personal estimation we have for you, you 
ought not to be doubtful with respect to these." 



88 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

This appeal was not of trifling force ; but his manly 
spirit rose upon the storm. "Which," said he, "am 
I to believe ? The First Consul's words, or General 
Le Clerc's actions? I renounce them both!" The 
scene that followed was overwhelming. His sons 
embraced his knees, and entreated his compliance. 
His wife, for her children's sake, added her tears. 
It was a more fearful struggle than had ever been 
waged even on those bloodstained shores. The inde- 
pendence of his brave people seemed to have small 
prospect of success against the combined forces of 
parental and conjugal affection. But patriotism won 
the day. " Take back my sons!" he exclaimed, and, 
leaping on his horse, darted towards the mountains, 
to relieve his oppressed heart in secret. 

Again the war raged with unlessened fury. Such 
was the difficulty of traversing the mountain fast- 
nesses, and such the deadly effects of the marshes 
on the sea coast, that the small comparative numbers 
of the blacks did frightful execution on the French. 
But by constant accession of fresh troops from 



tou'ssaint's capitulation. 89 

Europe, and by the treacherous hut skilful use of 
the words "Liberty and Equality," Le Clerc suc- 
ceeded in wearying the spirits of the islanders, and 
winning over to his ranks some of their bravest 
generals. Toussaint for ever maintained that all 
professions would end in clenching the chains of 
colonial slavery anew; but, finding it impossible to 
retain the field alone, he submitted on certain 
honourable terms, to which the French general ac- 
ceded. Eenouncing all the offices of rank which 
had deluded his companions, he stipulated only for 
permission to retire to his farm at Ennery, and to 
resume the labours of the field. Such a request 
reveals the modesty and simplicity of the man. 
Amid the noise and carnage of successive battle- 
fields, he must have thirsted for the repose of this 
retreat, which still is lovely and attractive. 

Could we complete this historical picture, — 
already one of the bloodiest in the gallery of time, 
— by saying that the brave chief ended his days 
honourably in his home, how thankfully should we 



90 A GLmPSE OF HAYTI. 

do so ; but the deepest crimson has yet to be dashed 
upon the canvas. "I swear," said Le Gere, ''before 
the Supreme Being, to respect the liberties of St. 
Domingo.'' At that very moment he had the im- 
perative instructions of Buonaparte that Toussaint 
should be sent in chains to France. By those orders, 
his victim was arrested while in the bosom of his 
family, although not until two faithful chiefs had 
died in his defence, and many of his friends had 
shewn so dangerous a sympathy as to lead to their 
being carried to sea at midnight, and, it is feared. 
drowned in secret. Toussaint, with his wife and 
family, were taken to France, where they landed in 
June, 1802. At Bayonne, they parted, for, by the 
orders of the First Consul, the chief was sent to a 
remote chateau, situated in the mountains of Jura. 
Those tremendous ramparts, which wall off Switzer- 
land from the French territories, rise, in some parts, 
to more than five thousand feet above the level of 
the sea, and form, in point of climate, an intolerable 
contrast to the glowing atmosphere of the isles of 
the Antilles. But not satisfied with confining his 



TOUSSAIXTS DEATH. 91 

prisoner to the fortress, Buonaparte required that he 
should be limited to the dungeon, and fed on the 
barest necessaries of life. For the first few months 
he was allowed the attendance of a faithful negro 
servant ; but at length, and at the moment when 
the winter was gathering its power, he was deprived 
of that last drop of mitigating comfort. It is feared 
that dark means were adopted to extort from him a 
confession respecting treasures which it was alleged 
he had buried at St. Domingo. " I had treasures,'' 
said he, "but they are not such as you seek." His 
despair deepened, and his strength sank. Some 
authors hint at unnatural means, but there is no 
positive evidence of the fact ; nor was any thing 
required to be added to an inhospitable cell, and a 
broken spirit, to produce his death, which happened 
on the 27th April, 1803, after ten months' imprison- 
ment, and at sixty years of age.* 

What was gained by the perpetration of this foul 

* Toussaint's family continued to reside in France. His 
widow died in May, 1816, in the arms of Isaac and Placide. 
In 1825, Isaac published a brief memoir of his father. 



9*2 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

crime *? What did crime ever gain ? Long may be 
the interval, and complicated the train of incidents, 
which lead to the issue ; but it is the irreversible 
moral law of the universe that deflection from recti- 
tude shall be followed by a proportionate penalty. 
In this instance the effect was almost simultaneous 
with its cause. During the imprisonment of Tous- 
saint, the war was carried on with the most savage 
fury on both sides, the French calling in the aid 
of large numbers of bloodhounds from Cuba, until 
almost the whole island, with the exception of the 
mountain fastnesses, became one unrelieved scene of 
carnage and desolation. Le Gere perished earlier 
than the chief whom he had betrayed; and before 
the close of 1803, France was not only compelled 
to resign entirely the island of St, Domingo, but to 
endure the humiliation of having sacrificed, in the 
vain attempt to retain it, not fewer than thirty 
thousand men, and five hundred officers, of various 
ranks, among whom were fourteen generals, and 
seven hundred physicians and surgeons. " The his- 



REFLECTIONS. 93 

toiy of Europe," says Mr. Alison, " can hardly afford 
a parallel instance of so complete a destruction of so 
vast an armament." 




94 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

^HEN the deserved losses and misfortunes of 
the French compelled them to desert the 
island, the generals and chiefs of the native 
army proclaimed independence ; and in order to 
mark, in the most emphatic manner, their total 
renunciation of France, determined at the same mo- 
ment to expunge for ever the name of St. Domingo, 
and to adopt the original title of Hayti, or the 
mountain land. 

The supreme place in the government was con- 
ferred on Dessalines, a black chief, under the desig- 
nation of Governor-General. He was a man of strong 
and capacious mind, but of ferocious temper. The 
principles on which he proceeded were judicious, but 
the severity of his measures created general dissatis- 
faction, and he fell under the shot of the assassin. 
On his death, the country divided itself into two 



NATIVE RULERS. 95 

parts. Petion, a mulatto general, who had been 
educated in Paris, reigned in the south, where those 
of his own colour predominated ; and Christophe, 
a negro of great ability, who assumed the title of 
Henry I., ruled in the north, which was inhabited 
chiefly by the blacks. Both parts were probably 
as well governed as the unsettled state of society 
admitted ; but in the course of ten years these 
princes vanished from the scene, and the entire 
island, including both sections of the French and 
the whole of the eastern or Spanish part, came under 
the sway of Boyer (a mulatto), who had been edu- 
cated in France, and had accompanied the French 
army on its invasion. His rule was long, and on 
the whole prosperous, but a revolution at length 
compelled him to abdicate, and resort for protection 
to British soil. 

At the period of our visit, General Riche had just 
succeeded to the Presidency, and, in conjunction 
with enlightened advisers, was carrying out important 
reformatory measures. His death occurred shortly 



A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 



afterwards, when his place became occupied by Faus- 
tin Soulouque, who, after some campaigns against 
the Spanish Eepublic, has just assumed the imperial 
dignity, and, amid the desolation of an uncultured 
soil, and the wreck of a once promising commerce, 
has created a long train of titulary nobles. 

The minute political history of the country, how- 
ever, will probably be less acceptable to the reader 
of these pages than a glimpse of its scenery and its 
people. Let him, therefore, have the courtesy to 
follow us on one of the easiest, but most pictu- 
resque journeys he could take within its shores — from 
Jacmel, at which the English mail is generally cast 
ashore, to Port-au-Prince, the capital city. 

The road, it must be admitted, is rude and pre- 
cipitous, and never traversed by a stranger without a 
guide. We started with ours one morning at four 
o'clock. He was a handsome African, with a Spanish 
caste of countenance, decorated with a well-formed 
moustachio, and rode upon a horse which carried the 
luggage, whilst we had another, apparently not fit for 



JOUKNEY. 97 

much fatigue. Being somewhat annoyed at not 
getting away three hours earlier, he set off at a 
hard gallop, and so proceeded for a couple of miles, 
without ever looking back to see whether w T e remained 
in the saddle or not. The moon, which was beginning 
to descend in the west, cast so strong a flood of her 
white, ambiguous, magical light across the road, that 
the illuminated intervals seemed water, and the 
sharply defined shadows of the trees veritable logs 
of wood; in addition to which, the sort of footpath 
which we traversed was so crooked, that every mo- 
ment we swung first on one side and then on the 
opposite, without being at all certain in what the 
whole would terminate. At last, stopping to w^ade 
across the stream, the black threw himself upon his 
elbow over the back of the horse, and, seeing us 
still safe, laughed at the success of his experiment, 
and recounted it to a soldier whom we overtook at 
that moment. 

As we went down into the profound valley — 
through which the river pursues a course so exceed- 



i 



A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



ingiy tortuous, that in sixty miles we had to ford 
it nearly eighty times — it became both dark and 
cold. There the moonlight touched only the sum- 
mits of the western hills, and the dew lay plen- 
tifully on the broad leaves. A Scottish plaid, which 
we had taken to soften the saddle by day, and to 
serve as a covering by night, we were glad to wrap 
about us, and even then felt scarcely warm. In less 
than a couple of hours the moon deserted the sky 
altogether, and left her empire to Jupiter, Sirius, and 
Orion ; but even their regency was brief, for light, 
composed of colours more delightfully blended than 
that which we had just lost, began slowly to diffuse 
itself over the sky. Although every object soon be- 
came illumined, and the eye was sensibly relieved and 
gratified, all was so gentle and so general that no per- 
ceptible shadow was cast from any thing. In mar- 
vellously few moments, and without a single leaf being 
stirred — or rather, while every twig and spire seemed 
to pause for the blessing — the whole landscape became 
immersed in the etherial element. Nothing could 



SCENERY. 99 

exceed the soothing and inspiring influence of the 
transition. The stream which we were perpetually 
crossing, instead of coming stealthily and gloomily from 
unseen recesses, tripped along radiantly. The mono- 
tonous hum of the grasshoppers, which had almost 
stunned our senses, ceased, and in their room the vari- 
ous tribes of moths expanded their many coloured 
velvet banners to the sky, and floated hither and 
thither, luxuriously, on waves of air. We could have 
ridden leagues out of our way rather than have impaled 
one of them, or deprived it of that day of joy ! But in 
what language shall the foliage be depicted? The 
deep coloured evergreens mingled with the light 
shaded deciduous plants which grew about their 
roots; the tall palm cast its single canopy of leaves 
over the green banana that seemed to seek its shelter, 
and the parasites threw elegance and beauty over 
almost every branch that had not luxuriance of its 
own. These creepers did not seem always to injure 
the healthy trees to which they clung. Most of their 
supporters looked as verdant as themselves, except, 



100 A GLIMPSE OF HAYT1. 

indeed, where they had reached the summit of the 
tree and flung themselves completely over it, for 
then they concealed it entirely, and fell in innu- 
merable folds, like mantles of softest damask, to the 
ground. 

Whilst we were contemplating these plants, the 
negro soldier, who had rode some time by the guide, 
fell back, and, addressing us in good French, expa- 
tiated with pride upon their various qualities. He 
pointed to one tree which yields- a valuable medicinal 
oil, — to another, which supplies a rich vermilion, — 
to another, which serves the poor for soap, — to the 
indigo plant, and to the mountain palm, which last, 
he repeatedly reminded us, was the symbol of liberty 
in the Haytian arms. This pleasant fellow, how- 
ever, soon left us, and we galloped over flood and 
brake as before. 

In a short time we crossed the last considerable 
fording place of the river, and began to ascend. The 
path was steep, but good, and the sides towards the 
east so high that the sun's direct rays were for the 
most part intercepted. When we gained the sum- 



SCENERY. 101 

mit, a spectacle lay before the eye to which no words 
are equal. The whole of the valley which we had 
traversed lay beneath, guarded by mountains of the 
most varied outlines, and intersected by ranges of 
lesser eminences, covered with the richest vegeta- 
tion, and all bathed in one flood of resplendent and 
lustrous sunshine. Cottages, frequently of tasteful 
construction, inhabited by the cultivators of the coffee 
shrubberies — which gave a garden-like appearance 
to the sides of the smaller" hills — stood upon various 
projections, the better to meet the streams of air, 
and imparted something approaching to animation 
to the scene, — for animation, it may be strange to 
say, was what we most of all desiderated. There 
was a singular silence over everything. The guide's 
Creole-French had made us abandon all attempts 
at conversation, and we rode on for miles without 
exchanging a syllable. We had left the murmuring 
of the river — we had ceased to hear the hum of 
insects — no birds uttered a note — the atmosphere 
moved not a leaf : — 



102 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

"Iso stir of air was there; 
Not so much life as in a summer's day 
Robs one light seed from the feathered grass, 
But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest." 

Keats. 

Although filled with sentiments of both wonder 
and admiration, we were by no means ungrateful for 
the covering of a rude cottage after we had descended 
into another valley, and risen half way up the oppo- 
site mountain. It was a wretched enough habitation, 
although we have seen worse in our Highland glens. 
We pulled out of our bag the leg of a fowl, and some 
bread, which the heat had brought to a racy sourness, 
and, with the help of good water, made a tolerable 
dinner, although it was then only ten o'clock in the 
morning. We remained until half-past two, when 
we resumed our journey, which lay over a country 
of undiminished beauty, until we came within sight 
of the Bay and Plain of Leogane. There the scene 
before us became totally different to the scene 
behind, and, as if to divide them permanently, a 
steep hill is thrown directly across the embouchures 



SUGAK PLANTATION. 103 

of the various valleys which there converge upon the 
shore. Over the pathway which lies along the level 
and narrow summit of that hill, we rode in single 
file. All on the right hand was rich, luxuriant, and 
deeply green; all on the left, comparatively tame, 
meagre, and hleak. It appeared as if the bard could 
have had no other spot in his eye, when he described 
the "verdurous wall" which divided Paradise from 
the rest of the world, and which "to our general 
sire gave prospect large." 

As we descended we passed over the ruins of a 
large sugar manufactory. This had survived from 
the days of colonial power, since which period that 
manufacture has almost wholly ceased. With a soil 
of great fertility, and a climate admirably suited for 
the production of the article, it cannot be too much 
regretted that capital has never found its way to the 
island to a sufficient extent to carry it on. Much 
land is still devoted to the growth of the cane, 
and made to yield an abundant supply of syrup, or 
uncrystallised sugar, which is universally used by 



104 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

the people. It appears on table in bottles, from 
which you pour it into your tea, or any other matter 
requiring its aid. The cane itself is a favourite 
article of luxury with the peasants, crowds of whom 
one meets in the highways travelling home from 
their labour, talking at the highest pitch of their 
voices, and crunching out the juice with their ivory 
teeth. It is always a great delight to them to com- 
ply with the request of the white man to oblige him 
with a part of their fare, which is by no means 
unpleasant during a hot day's ride. It were well if 
the application of this famous plant ended there, 
but a fiery spirit is produced from it, called " tafia," 
to the worship of which all classes are too much 
devoted. 

The coffee plantations have an air of great love- 
liness at almost any period of the year, but especially 
when the branches are covered with the snow-white 
blossoms. Coffee is the staple produce of the island, 
and one of the few articles which has maintained 
pretty nearly the ancient standard. The average 



COFFEE. PEASANTS. 105 

export of the whole country may be reckoned at 
50,000,000 of pounds, while the estimated amount 
under slavery was not more than 70,000,000 of 
pounds. The properties which in colonial times 
were large, on the occurrence of freedom were sub- 
divided into small estates, capable of being culti- 
vated by single families. The number of acres held 
by these small proprietors varies from nine to thirty. 
They raise sufficient provisions for the support of 
their families, such as yams, plantains, and bananas, 
— the two latter, however, growing spontaneously, — 
and dispose of their cotton, coffee, castor oil, hemp, 
and fruits for money, clothing, salt provisions, and 
other articles. Nothing gave us greater pleasure 
than to witness, on Saturday mornings, the roads 
leading to the towns all alive with these goodly 
peasants, bearing on their impenetrable heads loads 
that would have crushed the professedly more intel- 
lectual skull of the European, or driving a succession 
of asses, fed to sleekness on the luxuriant herbage 
of the road sides and the jungles, bearing panniers 



106 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

full of vegetables for the market, or balancing them- 
selves between closely packed canvas bags of coffee 
for the warehouses of the seaport. It was impossible 
not to perceive, in those independent and compara- 
tively industrious persons, the rude material at least 
of the country's future elevation and stability. 

Another considerable article of export is maho- 
gany, which grows in the mountainous districts, near 
the streams of the Bouyaha and the Gayamuco, 
which pour their tributary waters into the iVrtibonite. 
— a river flowing in almost a direct line for 160 
miles, and supplying the means of transporting to 
the western coasts the otherwise unavailable wealth 
of the inland forests. The great shipping port of 
the timber is Gonaives, a town not far from the 
capital, on the lake of Leogane. Merchants residing 
there go at certain periods, accompanied by skilful 
workmen, and perambulate the woods to select their 
trees and conclude their purchase. The men who 
live in those forests and devote themselves exclu- 
sively to woodcutting, it is said, scrupulously confine 



MAHOGANY. 1 07 

the use of the hatchet to the last quarter of the 
moon. An extensive mahogany merchant told Mr. 
Candler that, when he began his career, he laughed 
at the mountaineers for cutting down their trees 
only at a particular phase of the moon, and ordered 
some stout timber to be felled when that luminary 
was at her full. He soon had reason to repent the 
experiment, for it had not lain long before it began 
to split of its own accord, and at last to burst asunder 
with a noise resembling the report of a cannon, — a 
phenomenon which at least deserves a record. When 
the rains have filled the channels of the rivers, and 
the logs have been dragged over mountain and vale 
to their surface, the difficulty of their transit has 
not ended, for, notwithstanding the greatest efforts, 
much of the heaviest and best timber sinks, and a 
a large proportion is lost on its outlet to the sea. 
Much of the latter is recovered on the coast, or not 
far from land, and is restored on payment of salvage. 
But the merchant lays his account with the loss of 
about seven logs in ten. The best and heaviest are 



108 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

shipped to London and Liverpool, and that tree 
which in its native forest cost five shillings, in our 
ports occasionally fetches a hundred pounds. One of 
exquisite fineness, and capable of being cut into 
veneers of the rarest beauty, was not long since sent 
over in two logs, and purchased by Broadwoods for 
£3000.* The trade in mahogany and dye woods has 
been, of late years, a progressively improving one, 
and bids fair to bring both profit to the merchant 
and revenue to the state. The value of the annual 
exportation of produce from the whole island averages 
somewhat upwards of a million sterling, and requires 
only the moral improvement and enlarged intelli- 
gence of the people to be indefinitely increased. 

When, on the day just mentioned, we had tra- 
velled almost as far as our weary steeds could carry 
us, we reached a cottage somewhat better than the 
hut in which we had reposed at noon, where we 
intended to stay the night. The sable family, when 

* Candler's Brief Notices of Hayti, p. 62. 



EEPOSE. 109 

we galloped up, were squatted round a fire in the 
starlight before their door. They were not much 
disposed to bestir themselves, but, after a few pre- 
liminaries and an hour's cooking, the dame brought 
us a bowlful of boiled peas and a plateful of overdone 
eggs, swimming in oil. We dug a yolk or two out 
of the mass, which made the remnant of our sour 
bread palatable, and then, with thankful hearts, cast 
ourselves on a bed, white as the drifted snow, but 
hard as the native ebony, on which for eight hours 
we continued blessedly oblivious of all climes, toils, 
and travels. In the morning we accomplished the 
last five leagues of our journey, and entered the 
capital before the sun had acquired much power. 



110 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



CHAPTER VII. 







^HE city of Port-au-Prince is situated at the 
mouth of a valley which forms the principal 
way of communication between the Spanish 
and French divisions of the island. The mountains 
advance from the interior in two parallel columns, 
and, after leaving the city on a shore between them, 
continue onwards to the distance of perhaps twenty 
miles, embracing in that part of their course the 
waters of the lake of Leogane, which terminate in 
the depths of the Caribbean Sea. 

The aspect of these lofty mountainous ramparts 
is in the highest degree imposing. In fall day, the 
eye may be wearied with their imperturbable glare 
and stillness, but when the morning gilded the long- 
line of summits on the right hand with the most 
exquisite tints of violet and purple, and when, in the 
evening, the sun, hastening towards the ocean at a 



POET-AU-PEINCE. Ill 

more rapid pace than is observable in higher lati- 
tudes, threw out in bold relief against his crimson 
throne the rugged and darkened forms of the chain 
on the left hand, it was impossible not to feel that, 
whatever might be found in the human habitations 
of such a region, there never could be wanting in 
those "witnesses to an eternal power and godhead," 
prompters to high thoughts, and monitors to an 
exalted life. 

But it is not always the external that influences 
the internal, it is more frequently the reverse; in 
other words, it is not scenery which in the first 
instance produces character, but character which 
leads to the appreciation and the moral use of 
scenery. Some of the finest parts of the globe are 
covered with cities singularly out of harmony with 
their natural situation, and certainly, in the antique 
words of the poet, 

" Whoso enter eth within this town, 
That, sheening far, celestial seems to be, 
Disconsolate will wander up and down, 
'Mid many things unsightly to strange e'e." 

Byrox. 



112 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

A more miserable capital city, it would be hard 
to find. The streets are laid out at right angles, 
and from a distance promise you something, but 
the houses generally are of wood, of two stories 
high, and of very slender construction. The 
roofs stretch beyond the front walls, forming veran- 
dahs, which invite the panting walker to their shade ; 
but, unhappily, the path is not continuous, large 
intervals occurring between the houses, requiring you 
to leap down from one, and then up to another, 
every few moments, until you prefer a continuous 
journey in the hot stony sands, in the centre of the 
road, as on the whole less exhausting. Along the 
shore there are some noble commercial edifices of 
brick; and in the outskirts, towards the mountains, 
stands the President's house, the House of Assembly, 
the Lycaeum, and the church, but they are all build- 
ings of small pretensions. Large and massive 
edifices, indeed, are reckoned unsafe, from their con- 
stant exposure to earthquakes ; and whenever the 
case requires anything to be left undone, the adapta- 



INTEKNAL CONDITION. 113 

tion of the people to circumstances is punctiliously- 
exact; but wherever it requires the least exertion and 
combination, submission will be yielded cheerfully to 
any amount of inconvenience. Nothing, for instance, 
in such a climate, is more indispensable to health 
than the removal of corrupt matter from the streets ; 
and the fine slope towards the sea, upon which the city 
is spread out, almost articulately suggests the forma- 
tion of a system of drainage. But it appeals in vaio. 
Every thing waits for those floods of rain that seem 
intended to counterbalance the vis inertia of tropical 
citizens. In one sanitary point, however, they excel 
us. While we have been debating, in councils and 
in parliament, the propriety of interments beyond 
the limits of towns, they have, with complete uni- 
formity, acted upon that principle. The public 
cemeteries are situated in the most retired and beau- 
tiful positions of their suburbs. The walks aud 
groves are kept with nicety, and the tombstones are 
among the most tasteful architectural ornaments, 
though upon a small scale, of the country. This 



114 A GLIMPSE OF HAYT1. 

regard to the homes of the dead is not limited to the 
inhabitants of populous places. It struck our atten- 
tion in the most lonely parts of the island. Riding 
through the deep forests and the most sequestered 
valleys, where it was rarely possible for the eye to 
detect human habitations, nothing was more interest- 
ing than the few simple mausoleums, standing on 
spots of ground trellised off from the woods, and 
kept clear of vegetation. It was not for one, at 
such a moment, too closely to search into the ideas 
which were connected with these services to the 
departed. They might have been superstitious 
enough. But it occurred to us as preferable to the 
summary method in which the Africans of our British 
islands dispose of their dead. While walking over 
the beautiful infant villages of the emancipated 
peasantry there, we have asked our companion, gene- 
rally the founder and designer of the settlement, to 
point out the place of the dead — the spot which our 
Saxon ancestors, with a solemn simplicity, called 
" God's acre," — the portion of land reserved for Him 



CEMETEIES. 115 

to whom these bodies belong. The fact was, that 
the dead were buried in the gardens of the cottages, 
and although for the first season the spot was per- 
mitted to enjoy its Sabbath, when the next had 
revolved, the yam grew deep in its soil, or the cassava 
and the coffee shrub hung their white blossoms over 
it! We have personally a distrust of such symbols 
of truth, but far more congenial than this dreary 
absence of all memorial, was the rude wooden cross, 
inscribed, " La croix generale," which presided over 
the little group of graves, and served to remind one 
of that propitiation through which, to those who 
accept it, the sentence of death is in effect reversed, 
and that which is sown in " corruption," in " dis- 
honour," and in " weakness," is raised in " incor- 
ruption," in " glory," and in " power." 1 Cor. xv 
42, 43. 

But all objects are surpassed in interest by man 
himself, and the reader has frequently whispered 
the question, What is the moral condition of the 
inhabitants of this island ? The sources of a people's 



116 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

character are, of course, largely found in their history. 
How is it possible, for instance, for persons to live 
in a state of slavery which doomed them to incessant 
labour, and to almost absolute ignorance, not to be 
influenced for many generations by that circumstance? 
Who could expect such a people to have literary 
tastes and refined sentiments, within a period of half 
a century after their exit from bondage ? Even pre- 
suming they had been successful in imitating the 
characters of their proprietors, and ascending to the 
highest moral eminence which they beheld before 
them, what should they have acquired? Did the 
system to which we refer confine its influence to the 
subordinate party? Did it not act with an even 
more demoralising power on the superior party ? If 
the model were so debased, what should we expect 
to find in the copy ? 

The circumstance of the emancipation of those 
tribes having been achieved by bloodshed, has incon- 
ceivably aggravated their previous disadvantages. It 
has cast a disastrous shadow over all their history. 



MILITARY EXTRAVAGANCE. 117 

Murder, even when perpetrated under the forms of 
justice, or in the name of liberty, is condemned by 
the law of the universe to a terrific penalty. It is 
one of the least of these consequences, though in 
itself no trivial one, that an extravagant estimate has 
been formed of the military profession. Previous to 
the abdication of President Boyer, there were (inclu- 
sive of a militia force,) 65,000 soldiers, out of less 
than a million of people, or one in fifteen of all the 
inhabitants. During the administration of the last 
two or three presidents, this number has been re- 
duced, but is still preposterously large. The effect 
is not only to abstract strength from agricultural 
operations, and resources from the national purse, 
but to produce an amount of idleness altogether 
appalling. 

This idleness, passing beyond the ill-paid soldiery, 
becomes a national characteristic. A stranger is 
struck instantaneously with the extraordinary amount 
of leisure which the people seem to possess. Every 
one moves with remarkable deliberation, and never 



118 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

wants time to sit down and talk with you for hours. 
This happy composure belongs not only to the higher 
classes, but to those whom you would imagine would 
require to toil for their subsistence. If you enter a 
native shop in any of the towns, you encounter none 
of the embarrassing politeness and polished impor- 
tunity which assail you in England. Your merchant 
is equally contented whether you buy or not ; nothing 
disturbs his transcendental tranquillity. If we may 
give a homely illustration, we might mention that 
on one occasion we desired to engage the services of 
a profession which in England is reckoned of rather 
more than average sagacity, and sent our shoes to 
obtain what appeared to us indispensable repairs. 
In the course of the day, they were sent back with 
the message that "Monsieur so-and so thought they 
would do very well as they were" Our opinion 
continuing unchanged, we sent them to a larger 
establishment, well furnished, as it had seemed to 
us when passing it, with all the appliances of the 
trade. In the evening, however, the unfortunate 



IDLENESS. 119 

sandals were returned, with an expression of regret 
that "Monsieur so-and-so had that day no suitable 
leather." It is the same in many other departments, 
we were going to say, of industry. We found it 
difficult, in many cases, to move to exertion even 
with the allurement of money. That seemed to have 
none of its boasted power over the sweet indolence 
of the Haytien. Again and again we offered twice 
the proper reward for a trivial service, but received 
nothing beyond the most polite and good-humoured 
promises. From some duties, indeed, they abstain 
on principle. However poor a family may be, it 
is seldom that one of the females will go out to 
domestic service. In a sister republic farther west, 
the social disparity implied by this occupation is 
neatly concealed by the mere substitution of another 
name for that of servant. But in the sable common- 
wealth they take a more circuitous course for the 
preservation of their rank. They will serve none 
but those who, in baptism, have stood their sponsors. 
These are regarded as, in a religious sense, their 



120 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

parents, and they, "while performing the most humble 
offices, as still their children. Families, willing to 
give the most ample remuneration, cannot procure 
the aid of a Haytien female servant of good character 
on any other terms. 

It is obvious enough that from this indisposition 
to toil grave evils must follow ; for what soil is more 
fertile in vice ? We cannot assert that we saw many 
flagrant cases of intoxication, but the quantity of 
proof spirits manufactured and consumed in the 
island is estimated at sixty thousand barrels annu- 
ally, to which twenty thousand imported from Cuba 
are to be added. The authorities deny this importa- 
tion ; but taking the quantity at sixty thousand 
barrels, of sixty gallons each, we have an average 
consumption of four gallons and a quarter to eveiy 
individual of the population. * One clearly esta- 
blished fact of this description is more decisive than 
volumes of general speculation. 

But of all the causes unfriendly to morality and 
* Candler's Brief Notices of Hayti, p. 138. 



MARRIAGE. 121 

to national progress, none is so lamentable as the 
extensive disregard of the legal bond of marriage. 
If the French colonists had bequeathed no other 
curse to their successors, they would have had ample 
revenge in handing down this. It may be true that 
individuals, judging themselves, in the eye of God, 
knit together in that estate, may be as faithful as 
if the civil law had added its sanction. But these 
instances will ever be the exceptions; the weaker 
party will acquire no certainty, and, in case of deser- 
tion, no redress. Domestic unity will become subject 
to dissolution by temporary caprice, and children be 
abandoned to neglect and ignorance. We have not 
forgot the surprise which crept over us, as an intel- 
ligent man, with whom we had some satisfactory 
conversation, and who had in fact asked us to pay 
a religious visit to his village, introduced a pleasing 
woman, who came, followed by a troop of little ones, 
to the shade of the gigantic figtree under which 
we were standing, as "La mere de mes enfans, 
monsieur," — the mother of my children, sir. A 



12 '2 A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 

friend, resident in the island, said gravely. ;, Is that 
all?'' "It is the custom. " he replied: "we never 
mean to leave each other." But we afterwards 
observed, in the class immediately above the pea- 
santry, that this neglect was beginning to be regarded 
as dishonourable, and its entire removal from society 
would be one of the most important steps towards 
permanent improvement that could be taken. 

There is. however, in the midst of these and 
other formidable obstacles, a growing sense of the 
importance of mental cultivation, not only on the 
part of those who occupy the more prominent posi- 
tions in the Republic, but of those in the humblest 
classes. The Government charges itself with the 
duty of providing seminaries of elementary instruc- 
tion, wherever they can be established. In a com- 
munication lately received from a gentleman in the 
capital, it is said, " In the midst of all the disorders 
which have unhappily afflicted this country, it is an 
interesting fact that there is now more spent in the 
department of education than ever. Under President 



EDUCATION. 1*23 

Boyer, the general amount of expenses in this depart- 
meot was 40,000 dollars per annum ; the sum now 
expended is 130,000 dollars." Under this patronage, 
schools conducted chiefly on the British system are 
found in the chief towns ; and at Port-au-Prince, an 
institution of a higher class, called the Lycseum, 
supplies a pretty varied course of instruction. We 
witnessed examinations, conducted by the Govern- 
ment, in several of these seminaries, and confess that 
we have seldom seen more efficient teachers, or more 
apt and ingenious pupils. 

It is to be regretted that much less attention has 
been paid to the education of females than to that 
of the other sex. Parents, who will deny themselves 
many comforts to send their sons for the completion 
of their education to England or to France, and very 
frequently to both countries, are contented if their 
daughters can perform the mechanical duties of the 
household. But even in this, the tendency is towards 
improvement. Christian ladies of great acquirements, 
from motives of pure philanthropy, and with a self- 



1'24 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

denial of which small conception can be formed, have 
devoted themselves, both in the capital and in other 
towns, to this most interesting employment. Amid 
the exhaustion of the climate, through seasons of 
fearful sickness, in spite of bloodshed and revolution, 
and with a spirit of unflinching heroism which makes 
home labours of benevolence sink into insignificance. 
they have kept their position, and toiled, not without 
success, in the elevation of the women of Hayti. 
The evident fact that their daughters can acquire, 
not only the learning, but the manners and senti- 
ments, of the corresponding classes in England, has 
already wrought a change, in relation to this topic, 
on the popular mind. The Government has, with the 
highest intentions, offered pecuniary support to these 
efforts, which, in some instances, has been conscien- 
tiously accepted, and in others as conscientiously 
declined. 

We must be allowed simply to utter our convic- 
tion, that in the closest possible conjunction with all 
efforts for the elevation of the Havtiens, there must 



RELIGION. 125 

be disseminated, in order to their true progress, the 
knowledge of the mercy of God to man through 
Christ Jesus. We enter into no party views of this 
great theme. By what class of individuals, and in 
connection with what external forms, is of the smallest 
consequence, if the thing itself is accomplished. The 
course of the world's history has supplied unassailable 
evidence that this is indispensable to the permanent 
exaltation of any people. " He," says an English 
writer, not chargeable with religious partizanship, 
"who breathes a word against Christianity, commits 
an act of high treason against the civilisation of 
man." This yet remains to be brought home to the 
convictions of the people of this unfortunate island. 
And they are, to a great extent, aware of the defi- 
ciency. They crave for some other ideas, in con- 
nection with the ministers of religion, than those of 
ignorance and exaction. They have wants which 
have never yet been met by all the ceremonies, pagan 
and pseudo-christian, which exist among them. They 
are ready to hear from the lips of any man, going 



1*26 A GLIMPSE OF HAITI. 

forth in honest simplicity, that truth which carries 
its own attestation, as well as to ponder the volume 
which is the world's richest possession, — styling it, 
in sarcastic, and yet affectionate phrase, "Le bon 
predieateur, qui ni boive ni mauge," — the good 
preacher, who neither eats nor drinks. 

The Roman Catholic faith is, in the terms of the 
constitution, " specially protected," but there are no 
tithes, and no forced contributions for the maintenance 
either of the priesthood or of religious edifices. 
Every contribution is paid for some presumed reli- 
gious benefit, and the amount to be demanded is 
regulated by law. The authority of the Pope is not 
acknowledged, and there is no gradation of rank in 
the priesthood ; all are equals. How far they have 
discharged the duties of a Christian ministiy it is 
not for us to say ; certainly the result of their 
labours has not been striking. In many parts of 
the island the face of a priest is never seen, — a 
layman reads the liturgy to such of the people as 
choose to listen to him. At the same moment, on 



PAGANISM. 127 

the evening of the Sabbath, we have seen a multitude 
prostrating themselves, with lighted candles in their 
hands, before the image of Christ erected on the 
road-side, and a vastly larger assembly within audi- 
ence of the former, engaged in the idolatrous dances 
of their ancestors. Nothing could be more horrid than 
the yells and screams of the black group, as it threw 
itself into savage contortions, and whirled round instru- 
ments of jarring music, amid the glare of torches. 
We have been informed, that at certain periods they 
fall simultaneously upon their knees, and pay adora- 
tion to the serpent. Certainly the pagan congregation 
exhibited an intenser energy than the Christian one ; 
and the fact we afterwards found to be too truly 
representative of the general religious condition of 
the people. 

In the view of this, it is of importance to know- 
that the principles of religious liberty introduced by 
Toussaint, and embodied in the constitutional laws of 
the state, have been faithfully adhered to. " Every 
man," it is written, "has a right to express his 



128 A GLIMPSE OF HATTI. 

opinions upon every subject, as well as of writing, 
printing, and publishing his thoughts;" and " eveiy 
man has the right to profess his own religion, and to 
exercise freely his own form of worship, provided he 
does not interrupt the public order." The Christian 
missionaries, who have acted under these assurances, 
have not been betrayed. Their services have been 
everywhere well received, and, under successive 
revolutions, their persons have been held sacred. 
Although four or five small religious communities 
have been formed, and beam forth as stars radiant 
with the sweetest hope, their numbers and their 
power require vast augmentation. 

It is to England in particular that the Haytiens 
look for this moral assistance. France they regard 
with natural distrust, although continuing to imitate 
her manners and to speak her language. America, 
although lying nearer than any other civilised 
country, they view, for reasons easily traceable in 
their history, with emotions still more unfriendly. 
The Western Republic has never yet recognised the 



AMERICAN POLICY. 129 

independence of her island sister, nor has the appa- 
rition of a black ambassador been permitted to haunt 
the legislative halls of Washington. England's 
exertions for the freedom of their race have won their 
hearts, and the sacrifice of " twenty millions," rather 
than hold one of them as her own. has inflamed them 
to enthusiasm, and they say, " Tell us of the prin- 
ciples which govern this people." If England does 
respond as becomes her, we may yet see the Haytiens 
an intelligent and prosperous nation. 

The idea, indeed, has not yet vanished, that the 
African is inherently unfit for the higher forms of 
civilisation. Some of the most distinguished writers 
of our country remain under the power of this super- 
stition. " If," says Mr. Alison, "the African is not 
an inferior race, why is it that no kingdoms have 
sprung up on the shores of the Quorra and the 
Congo, as on those of the Ganges and Euphrates ? " 
It might have occurred, one would have supposed, 
to such a mind, that there is a progressive education 
of races, as well as of individuals, and that unpro- 
9 



130 



A GLIMPSE OF HAYTI. 



pitious circumstances alone may retard the one as 
well as the other. The prelate who saw some brown- 
haired youths exposed for sale in the streets of Rome, 
saw the representatives of a horde of slaves in a 
rude island in the German Ocean ; and if faith in 
the expansive force of the human faculties, when 
brought under the genial power of Christianity, had 
not led him to take some means for their recovery, 
they might have remained to this day what they 
were on that. After all, the ascent was not quickly 
traversed. The men whom he predicted would be 
" non Angli, sed angeli," remained for centuries 
afterwards the bondsmen of successive conquerors. 
It was only by a protracted course of most painful 
discipline that they were trained to independence 
and to thought. And now that they give law, and, 
what is better, Christianity, to the world, the indi- 
vidual must not forget his obligations to the race. 
No man rising up among us now, acquires his abilities 
in his own lifetime. He has been under education 
in the persons of a long line of ancestry. He finds 



HOPES FOE THE AFRICAN. 131 

himself, at birth, the inheritor of principles, and even 
of intellectual powers, for which multitudes have 
wasted the midnight oil, and agonised in the prison 
and at the stake. We cannot doubt tha^ the sons 
of Africa will, under similar circumstances, develop 
a like capacity of improvement; and if affliction is 
prophetical of future eminence, — if sufferings are 
ominous of the destiny of an individual and of a 
people, — they are likely to bear an even more distin- 
guished part in the administration of this world. 



D. MARPLES, PRINTER, LIVERPOOL. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




